Researchers are developing magnetic microrobots that can collect nanoplastic particles from water — a solution to a problem ordinary filters can't handle.
Nanoplastics — plastic particles smaller than a micrometre — are so small that ordinary water filters can't stop them. The particles have been found in tap water around the world.
Researchers are now developing magnetic microrobots that can be steered through water with external magnetic fields, picking up nanoplastic particles as they go. Once the work is done, the robots are fished out together with the plastic.
The technology is still at the laboratory stage, but researchers hope it can be scaled up to municipal water treatment plants within a decade.
Source: SVT