
Radioactive Uranium Preconcentration via Self-Propelled Autonomous Microrobots - techben
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.9b04960#
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_iyig
Sounds like the fictional "Japanese Miracle" from Ghost in the Shell, which
leads me to wonder how long this idea's been around:

[https://ghostintheshell.fandom.com/wiki/Japanese_Miracle](https://ghostintheshell.fandom.com/wiki/Japanese_Miracle)

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hanniabu
> the researchers designed ZIF-8 rods with diameters about 1/15 that of a
> human hair

Always amazes me how we're able to create things this small/thin.

> In simulated radioactive wastewater, the microrobots removed 96% of the
> uranium in an hour

That's a very respectable number, I'm curious how they simulated waste water
and what the differences would be with real waste water.

> The team collected the uranium-loaded rods with a magnet and stripped off
> the uranium, allowing the tiny robots to be recycled.

And they're reusable? Bravo!

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hanging
What about non-Uranium isotopes?

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spockz
> The team collected the uranium-loaded rods with a magnet and stripped off
> the uranium, allowing the tiny robots to be recycled.

So it appears as if these MOFs capture the uranium and then can be collected.

From the title I expected the micro robots to actually get rid of the
material. We still need a way to process the collected uranium and find a way
to extract the MOFs from groundwater in case of leakage.

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p1mrx
Their "motor" is just a bit of platinum, which makes bubbles in hydrogen
peroxide:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6nGjRB1_s4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6nGjRB1_s4)

I wonder how much H₂O₂ is required per liter of H₂O?

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aszantu
So what do they then do with the uranium? Storage is still a problem, right?

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angry_octet
This site is a click farm, please submit the source article instead.

[https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.9b04960#](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.9b04960#)

Edit: this account is a bot that just submits from this site:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=techben](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=techben)

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Melloooo
Incredible

