Catalysis is a widespread chemical phenomenon, which means that in a chemical reaction, the addition of one or more substances (called catalysts) can change the reaction rate. After the reaction, the mass and chemical composition of the catalyst remain unchanged before and after the reaction. In terms of reaction mechanism, catalysts can reduce the activation energy of the reaction, making the reaction easier to proceed. Catalytic reactions have many advantages, such as high selectivity, high reaction rate, and relatively mild reaction conditions. Therefore, catalytic reactions are widely used in many fields such as chemical production [1], environmental governance [2], energy production [3], and biochemistry [4], and play a significant role in human scientific and technological breakthroughs and economic development.

With the advancement of nanotechnology, micro/nanorobots have gradually come into people's sight and become the focus of cutting-edge research. Micro/nanorobots refer to micro-nano-scale devices that convert external energy (light [5,6], sound [7,8], magnetism [[9], [10], [11], [12]], electricity [13,14], chemistry [15,16], etc.) into mechanical energy. They have the characteristics of petite size, controllable motion, and functions. Therefore, they show excellent application prospects in environmental governance, substance detection, biomedicine [[17], [18], [19]], micro/nanomanufacturing, and other fields. Due to their unique catalytic properties, catalytic micro/nanorobots have richer power and show more unique advantages compared to micro/nanorobots with other driving modes. As follows: (1) The surface area of the interaction between catalytic micro/nanorobots and organic pollutants is greatly increased due to their small size ranging from the micron to the nanometer level. (2) The autonomous movement of catalytic micro/nanorobots replaces the external agitation in traditional treatment techniques, providing a unique miscible mechanism [20]. (3) The size of catalytic micro/nanorobots is often at the micro/nano level. Therefore, it can detect organic pollutants in complex, small spaces such as pipes, cavities, and microchannels. (4) The surface of the catalytic micro/nanorobots are easy to functionalize and can be adjusted and modified as needed. (5) The catalytic micro/nanorobots have multiple mechanisms for catalytic degrading pollutants, including photocatalysis, Fenton, and Fenton-like; enzymatic catalysis; and metal catalysis.

In this article, we first summarized five design strategies for catalytic micro/nanorobots. The following section elaborates on how catalytic reactions play a role in the movement of micro/nanorobots, focusing on the driving principles, including self-electrophoresis, self-diffusiophoresis, and bubble propulsion. Afterward, the applications of catalytic micro/nanorobots in the catalytic degradation and detection of organic pollutants are summarized (Scheme 1). We expect that this article can help researchers to have a more systematic understanding of the construction, driving, and practical applications of catalytic micro/nanorobots, and further promote the further integration of catalysis and micro/nanorobots.