Manganese‐Based Micro/Nanomotors: Synthesis, Motion, and Applications
Yangyang Yang, Kunsheng Hu, Panpan Zhang, Peng Zhou, Xiaoguang Duan, Hongqi Sun, Shaobin Wang
Abstract
Abstract As emerging micro/nano‐scale devices, micro/nanomotors have been innovatively applied in the environmental and biomedical applications. In this paper, the recent advances of Mn‐based micro/nanomotors (Mn‐micro/nanomotors) in catalytic oxidation of organic contaminants and the mechanisms in decomposition of H 2 O 2 (e.g., the generation of O 2 bubbles and reactive oxygen species) are reviewed. The intrinsic characteristics and synthetic strategies of Mn‐based materials are discussed, aiming to gain comprehensive understandings on the asymmetric design of micro/nanomotors. Mn‐micro/nanomotors have many advantages such as flexible structures, biocompatibility, powerful motion, long lifetime, and low‐cost as compared to noble‐metal micro/nanomotors. These merits fulfil Mn‐micro/nanomotors great promises from proof‐of‐concept studies to realistic applications, including pollutant decomposition, trace detection of heavy metal ions, oil removal, drug delivery, isolation of biological targets, and killing bacteria and cancer cells. The great flexibility in fabrication enables diverse and innovative strategies to address challenges for Mn‐micro/nanomotors, including high consumption of H 2 O 2 and non‐directional motion. Meanwhile, a perspective of Mn‐micro/nanomotors in water remediation by coupling the motors with other Fenton/Fenton‐like systems to enhance the catalytic activity and to yield more reactive oxygen species is presented. Directions to the design of on‐demand H 2 O 2 ‐fueled Mn‐micro/nanomotors for advanced purification of organic contaminants in aquatic systems are also proposed.