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Vol. 9 No. 3 (2017)

Dye-Enhanced Self-Electrophoretic Propulsion of Light-Driven TiO2–Au Janus Micromotors

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-017-0133-9
Yefei Wu
School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, People’s Republic of China
Renfeng Dong
School of Chemistry and Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, People’s Republic of China
Qilu Zhang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, People’s Republic of China
Biye Ren
School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Biye Ren

mcbyren@scut.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 9 No. 3 (2017), Article Number: 30

Abstract

Light-driven synthetic micro-/nanomotors have attracted considerable attention in recent years due to their unique performances and potential applications. We herein demonstrate the dye-enhanced self-electrophoretic propulsion of light-driven TiO2–Au Janus micromotors in aqueous dye solutions. Compared to the velocities of these micromotors in pure water, 1.7, 1.5, and 1.4 times accelerated motions were observed for them in aqueous solutions of methyl blue (10−5 g L−1), cresol red (10−4 g L−1), and methyl orange (10−4 g L−1), respectively. We determined that the micromotor speed changes depending on the type of dyes, due to variations in their photodegradation rates. In addition, following the deposition of a paramagnetic Ni layer between the Au and TiO2 layers, the micromotor can be precisely navigated under an external magnetic field. Such magnetic micromotors not only facilitate the recycling of micromotors, but also allow reusability in the context of dye detection and degradation. In general, such photocatalytic micro-/nanomotors provide considerable potential for the rapid detection and “on-the-fly” degradation of dye pollutants in aqueous environments.


Highlights:


1 TiO2–Au Janus micromotors can obtain energy from photocatalytic degradation of dyes in aqueous solution and exhibit light-induced dye-enhanced motion through self-electrophoretic effects without additional reagents.
2 Micromotors are faster in aqueous dye solutions than in pure water under the same UV light intensity.
3 The prepared micromotors are easily synthesized and exhibit excellent reusability in the degradation and detection of dye pollutants.

Keywords

TiO2–Au Janus micromotor Self-electrophoresis Light-driven Motion control Dye pollution Environmental remediation
Wu, Yefei, Renfeng Dong, Qilu Zhang, and Biye Ren. 2017. “Dye-Enhanced Self-Electrophoretic Propulsion of Light-Driven TiO2–Au Janus Micromotors”. Nano-Micro Letters 9 (3):30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-017-0133-9.
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