14 DAY TRIAL // Speaking at this year's 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, a team of researchers argued that it was possible to use nothing but sunlight and high-tech materials to rid water sources of pollutants such a pharmaceuticals and pesticides.
Anne Morrissey and her fellow researchers at the Dublin City University in Ireland explain that, when they first started looking into the possibility of coming up with a new way to purify water, they turned their attention to a chemical compound known to the scientific community as titanium oxide.
This compound is commonly used to whiten paints, paper, toothpaste, even food. However, several studies have shown that it is quite gifted in terms of breaking down pollutants such as pesticides and pharmaceuticals that tend to build up in various natural ecosystems.
Looking to make the most of titanium oxide's ability to break down unwanted chemical compounds, the researchers used it to create nanotubes whose diameter was roughly 1,000 times smaller than that of the average human hair.
The researchers say that, by toying with the titanium oxide shape and creating nanotubes, they managed to activate its properties using sunlight.
They further explain that, had it not been for their making the compound take this shape, the titanium oxide's properties would have responded chiefly to ultraviolet light alone.
As detailed on the official website for the American Chemical Society, these nanotubes were then fitted onto graphene sheets.
Together, these two materials were found to attract pollutants and destroy them. More precisely, pollutants were found to stick to the surface of the graphene, which gave the titanium dioxide plenty of time to break them down.
Anne Morrissey and her colleagues say that they have tested this technology on water contaminated with an anti-inflammatory drug dubbed diclofenac, and that the results they obtained after carrying out their experiments were pretty impressive.
The trouble is that, for the time being at least, this technology does not appear to be able to take on pollutants on its own.
On the contrary, the researchers who worked on this project argue, according to information at hand, it could only be used to remove what they call stubborn pollutants after a given water source had already been treated with conventional methods.
The technology could especially come in handy in rural areas and in developing countries. However, before making it commercially available is even worth considering, the scientists need to be sure that, while breaking down pollutants, it does not cause other potentially harmful byproducts to be released into the environment.