Chlorella-Based Biohybrid Microrobot for Removing Both Nutrient and Microalgae toward Efficient Water Eutrophication Treatment

Excessive nutrients and explosive growth of harmful microalgae in water environments are key challenges in the treatment of eutrophication. The development of a low-cost, time-saving, and small-space-suitable research method that can simultaneously remove nutrients and microalgae is highly anticipated. This work first proposed applying microrobots to eutrophication treatment. Phosphate and Microcystisaeruginosa (M. aeruginosa) were selected as representative nutrients and harmful microalgae, respectively, to investigate the efficient removal effect of the microrobots on the two. The Chlorella@Fe₃O₄@ZIF-8 biohybrid microrobot can not only perform the dual removal of phosphates and M. aeruginosa but also take advantage of its small size and controllable motion to achieve targeted treatment of eutrophication of water in microenvironments such as microchannels, thereby achieving the effect of fundamentally treating the eutrophication. The Chlorella@Fe₃O₄@ZIF-8 microrobot reveals a new strategy for the treatment of eutrophication and also exploits a new perspective for application research of microrobots.