Nanotech On Tap
| Autor: | Virat Markandeya |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Chemical & Engineering News Archive. 92:33 |
| ISSN: | 2157-4936 0009-2347 |
| DOI: | 10.1021/cen-09245-scitech2 |
| Popis: | Groundwater in the Indian state of West Bengal naturally contains arsenic, causing ailments including skin diseases and cancer. Thanks to nanotechnology, thousands of people there have gained access to arsenic-free water since 2013, with the installation of treatment tanks using porous granules developed by a team at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, led by chemistry professor Thalappil Pradeep. The technology has received government support for field-testing as an option for low-cost, point-of-use water treatment. The granules are nanocomposites made from ferric oxyhydroxide and a biopolymer, chitosan. Iron oxides remove arsenic ions from water by adsorption. The team boosted their metal oxyhydroxide’s activity by reducing the particle size to nanoscale, thereby increasing the surface-to-volume ratio, and anchoring the material within a network of chitosan. With this structure, which resembles sand and is made at room temperature, embedded particles don’t leach into water, and the capture... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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