Recent findings that say nanoparticles can help purify water seem like something you can expect from a science fiction movie or something that you can read from a book by Jules Verne. Can nanoparticles really help give us cleaner and purer water, and if so, how does it work to do this?
When you talk about nanoparticles, you may begin to visualize those little robots that a certain cartoon character developed to help him with certain tasks and deeds. These are nano-bots and are not what scientists in universities in Mexico have developed in order to help clean water of toxic substances in less than an hour.
How this happens seems to need the power of the sun or of ultraviolet light to complete the purification process. What the researchers in these universities used was titanium oxide nanoparticles that have been made to adhere to glass with the use of heat.
Once water in these glass containers that have been treated with these nanoparticles is hit by sunlight or by UV rays, the water is then purified.
This same concept is actually being used by certain companies who purify water but not as their main water purification mode. Instead, the use of nanoparticles for purification is a secondary method used with other water purification methods to further remove toxins and dirt from water.
What these companies do is to add porous nanoparticles to water-purifying membranes to help increase their water purification efficiency and to enhance productivity without compromising quality. This method is often seen as doubly effective as current water purification methods and would help with increasing volume while reducing energy requirements.
This new idea for purifying water is paired off with reverse osmosis and is seen as the new solution to the ever-increasing need for clean drinking water in a time when water supplies are fast disappearing. This new technology for making fresh water can be used with desalination and can make fresh water out of saltwater faster and with the use of less energy.
This may seem too good to be true since saltwater has seldom been purified with the use of membranes like the one used in reverse osmosis due to the energy needs that are required by such an action.
The use of nanoparticles in this equation seems to not only help purify water effectively by removing the toxins that can be found in the water being cleaned, it also helps increase the production of clean water due to the water-attracting or hydrophilic properties that this membrane now has due to these nanoparticles.
While this may seem way too idealistic, the company that seems to have developed this technology is set to put out their water purification system for commercial use in the coming year. Sounds too good to be true? Probably, but imagine if this produces what it says it can produce.
You will be able to solve the water pollution problem that a lot of countries around the world are experiencing—and all you will need is this new nanoparticle water purification system and a salt water source and you have water that you can drink safely.