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Disinfecting contaminated drinking water in one minute
Worldwide, 2.2 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, according to a UNESCO report.
Researchers in the USA have developed a powder that can purify water using sunlight. Picture: Igor Nikushin / Getty Images
Scientists are working on solutions to make any water drinkable. In the USA, for example, researchers have developed a powder capable of disinfecting water using sunlight in just one minute.
Researchers at Stanford University and the SLAC laboratory, part of the US Department of Energy, are developing this astonishing solution.
It takes the form of a non-toxic powder which, in contact with sunlight, disinfects water to make it perfectly drinkable.
The powder, composed of nano-sized flakes of aluminum oxide, molybdenum sulfide, copper and iron oxide, is capable of killing thousands of bacteria per second when exposed to sunlight.
The aim is to be able to disinfect water quickly and effortlessly, since these materials are relatively inexpensive and, above all, abundant.
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What’s truly innovative is their powerful action in contact with each other. This non-toxic process could rival other solutions that are sometimes more dangerous, such as chemical-based water treatments, and sometimes more time-consuming, such as ultraviolet light.
The experiment
To demonstrate the effects of this solution, scientists tested it on a water sample contaminated to a level of one million E. coli bacteria per milliliter.
The experiment took place in full sunlight, and once the powder had been diluted, it took just 60 seconds for no live bacteria to be detected.
If they don’t immediately find bacteria to oxidize, the various elements in this powder break down into water and oxygen, and are thus eliminated in a matter of seconds.
Plus, the chemical by-products generated by sunlight also dissipate very quickly. The resulting water is therefore safe to drink.
After E. coli, the researchers plan to test this new powder on other pathogens, including viruses and parasites that cause serious illness.
If such a solution were one day to be implemented on a large scale, starting with water treatment plants, it would be a revolutionary step forward.
At present, it is estimated that over two billion people in the world have no access to safe drinking water.
The results of the scientists’ initial research are published in the journal, Nature Water.
