Electrically Conducting Nanomaterials Filter for Point-of-Use Water Disinfection
Funding Year: 2011
Research Areas: Freshwater
Regions: North America
The goal of this project is to investigate the feasibility of developing an ultra-fast, low-cost portable filter that removes bacteria and other pathogens from drinking water.
Worldwide, more than one billion people lack reliable access to clean water. Disinfection, the last barrier against contaminated pathogens in drinking water, is critical for ensuring public health. Commonly used water treatment methods such as mechanical separation, chemical disinfection and UV disinfection are limited by low treatment speed, high energy consumption, harmful byproducts, expense and other factors.
Nanomaterials offer a new simple way to disinfect the pathogens for point-of-use at high speed and low cost. This project will study the effectiveness of these filters against all kinds of environmentally relevant pathogens such as bacteria, virus, protozoa and helminthes. Researchers will study the disinfection mechanisms driven by electricity and tailor the filters with the most effectiveness against the real contaminated water in the environment.
Learn more about the Environmental Venture Projects grant program and other funded projects.
Principal Investigators:
Yi Cui, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, of Photon Science, Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy and Professor, by courtesy, of chemistry
Alexandria Boehm, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Related News
Stanford and SLAC scientists developed a low-cost, recyclable powder that can kill thousands of waterborne bacteria per second when exposed to sunlight.