Autonomously Propelled Motors for Value-Added Product Synthesis and Purification.
A proof-of-concept design for autonomous, self-propelling motors towards value-added product synthesis and separation is presented. The hybrid motor design consists of two distinct functional blocks. The first, a sodium borohydride (NaBH4 ) granule, serves both as a reaction prerequisite for the reduction of vanillin and also as a localized solid-state fuel in the reaction mixture. The second capping functional block consisting of a graphene-polymer composite serves as a hydrophobic matrix to attract the reaction product vanillyl alcohol (VA), resulting in facile separation of this edible value-added product. These autonomously propelled motors were fabricated at a length scale down to 400 μm, and once introduced in the reaction environment showed rapid bubble-propulsion followed by high-purity separation of the reaction product (VA) by the virtue of the graphene-polymer cap acting as a mesoporous sponge. The concept has excellent potential towards the synthesis/isolation of industrially important compounds, affinity-based product separation, pollutant remediation (such as heavy metal chelation/adsorption), as well as localized fuel-gradients as an alternative to external fuel dependency.
Institute for Integrative Nanosciences, IFW Dresden, Helmholtzstrasse 20, 01069, Dresden, Germany. sarvesh.kumar@ifw-dresden.de.
Sarvesh K
SK
Srivastava
Institute for Integrative Nanosciences, IFW Dresden, Helmholtzstrasse 20, 01069, Dresden, Germany.
Oliver G
OG
Schmidt
food production; graphene; hybrid micromotors; polymers; vanillin