Visible-Light-Driven Water-Fueled Ecofriendly Micromotors Based on Iron Phthalocyanine for Highly Efficient Organic Pollutant Degradation

Abstract

The light-driven micromotor has been demonstrated to have great potential in the environmental remediation field. However, it is still challenging to develop highly efficient, ecofriendly, and visible-light-powered micromotors for organic pollutant degradation. In this paper, we report an ecofriendly micromotor based on iron phthalocyanine (FePc) and gelatin, which exhibits the visible-light-driven self-propulsion behavior using water fuel based on the photocatalytic reaction and self-diffusiophoresis mechanism. Fast motion behavior is observed which induces the rapid agitation of the solution. This, together with the excellent photocatalytic activity, makes the FePc-based micromotor highly efficient when utilized in the degradation of organic pollutants with a normalized reaction rate constant of 2.49 × 10–2 L m–2 s–1, which is by far the fastest and is far superior than the stationary counterpart. The external fuel-free propulsion and the high efficiency in pollutant degradation make the current micromotor potentially attractive for environmental remediation.