Micromotors control CO2 levels in oceans; could combat global warming

Nanoengineers from UC San Deigo have come up with a method to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from air and convert it into a usable solid form aka calcium carbonate. To do this, theses engineers made use of micromotors (or machines smaller than a human hair's width) that rapidly zoom around in water to decarbonate it. The team of nanoengineers from University of California is led by Prof. Joseph Wang and Virendra V. Singh is the co-first author in the group. They demonstrated how enzyme - functionalised micromotors could remove CO2 from water solution containing saturated CO2 - about 90% of it within 5 minutes. The same micromotors could be used in a sea water solution to remove 88% of CO2 in the same time.


The micromotors are 6 micrometer long tubes with a polymer surface that possesses enzyme carbonic anhydrase, a critical element for speeding up the reaction between CO2 and water to form bicarbonate. Calcium Cholride is added to the water solution to convert the resulting bicarbonate into Calcium Carbonate - the solid material found in our regular calcium supplments eggshells or even in the shells of various marine organisms.

Operating autonomously, these micromotors move around in the water in a fast and continuous manner. This motion induces efficient solution mixing, which results in faster CO2 conversion.

Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) is currently being used as the power source for these micromotors. It reacts with the platinum surface of the micromotors to generate a continuous stream of oxygen gas bubbles that propel the micromotors around. By using as little as 2-4% percent hydrogen peroxide in the water solution, the micromotors reach a speed of 100 micrometers per second.

Though this is an effective solution for micromotors, it makes this process a costly affair as platinum is needed to be plated inside the little machines. To tackle this problem, the UC San Diego researchers are planning to build micromotors that can be propelled by water itself.

The team is confident that their method can be used for combating problems like ocean acidification and global warming. Immediate applications can be using micromotors in a water decarbonation plant. If their plans of developing water-propelled micromotors succeeds, we have a very cheap, eco-friendly and scalable solution for controlling carbon dioxide levels.

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