Shaking the nanomaterials out: New method to purify contaminated water

Date:: December 10, 2015
Source:: Michigan Technological University
Summary:: Nano implies small -- and that's great for use in medical devices, beauty products and smartphones -- but it's also a problem. All these tiny particles get into our water and are difficult to remove. Now, researchers have a novel and very simple way to take the nanomaterials out.
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After shaking, the oil and water in the vial separate, trapping unwanted nanomaterials in the bottom of the oil layer.

Credit: Michigan Tech, Sarah Bird

Purifying water and greening nanotechnology could be as simple as shaking a vial of water and oil. At least that's the case for a new method to clean contaminated water full of unwanted nanomaterials.

Nano implies small--and that's great for use in medical devices, beauty products and smartphones--but it's also a problem. The tiny nanoparticles, nanowires, nanotubes and other nanomaterials that make up our technology eventually find their way into water. The Environmental Protection Agency says more 1,300 commercial products use some kind of nanomaterial. And we just don't know the full impact on health and the environment.

"These materials are very, very tiny and that means if you try to remove them and clean them out of contaminated water, that it's quite difficult," says Dongyan Zhang, a research scientist at Michigan Technological University. She adds that techniques like filter paper or meshes often don't work.

Instead, shaking up oil and water traps the nanomaterials, which can be easily removed. The process clears out nearly 100 percent of nanowires, nanosheets, nanotubes and other one- and two-dimensional nanomaterials. Only zero-dimensional nanospheres are still too small to grab.

The study came out recently in the American Chemical Society's journal Applied Materials and Interfaces.

Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Michigan Technological University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

Bishnu Tiwari, Dongyan Zhang, Dustin Winslow, Chee Huei Lee, Boyi Hao, Yoke Khin Yap. A Simple and Universal Technique To Extract One- and Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials from Contaminated Water. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2015; 7 (47): 26108 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b07542

Cite This Page:

Michigan Technological University. "Shaking the nanomaterials out: New method to purify contaminated water." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 December 2015. .

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