Scientists from Shanghai invented how to purify water with light
China has mastered the technology of cleaning polluted water with the help of light.
Scientists from the Shanghai Research Institute of Silicate of the Academy of Sciences of China have invented a new material for wastewater treatment using the mixture of graphene and titanium dioxide.
Scientific Director of the Institute Huang Fuqiang told in an interview with Xinhua about how the cleaner works. Graphene, due to its three-dimensional structure, captures dirt, and titanium dioxide, as a photocatalyst, accelerates the process of photochemical degradation of toxic organic substances, bacteria, microorganisms, including heavy metals contained in industrial sewage waters.
Innovation was tested for a month in the city of Shanghai and the provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu in the East of China. As a result, water quality indicators in local rivers and reservoirs have improved significantly in a couple of weeks after the installation of networks coated with new material.
Graphene-titanium mixture in China is now produced on an industrial scale.
American researchers from the Engineering School of Brown University offer their own method of water purification using a sponge of titanium dioxide. Such sponges are able to absorb water fifty times its weight and within 15 minutes completely disinfect the water.
Previously, scientists from the British University of Manchester created the world's first filter sieve of graphene for desalination of sea water.
According to the United Nations, the increase in freshwater consumption caused by population growth and migration, as well as the effects of climate change, will lead to water deficit. Experts predict that more than half of the world's population will experience difficulties in access to clean water by 2030.
