Cheap, Pure Drinking Water

Worldwide, it’s been estimated that one in nine people lack access to clean drinking water on a day-to-day basis. Floods and other water-related disasters can cause periodic increases in these statistics, threatening the health, welfare and productivity of people all over the world. So it’s no wonder that finding solutions to the world’s drinking water crisis is a top priority in the minds of many researchers.

Recently, Chinese scientists announced the development of a water system that combines a two-dimensional material with sunlight to remove 99.999 percent of bacteria from a 10-liter sample (enough for a family of four for a day) in less than 30 minutes. Inexpensive sheets of graphitic carbon nitride are placed inside of a container of water. When exposed to sunlight, the sheets release electrons that bond with oxygen, creating compounds that kill bacteria.

Compared to previous metal-free photocatalysts, the new system demonstrated five times the disinfection rate with only one-tenth of the catalyst being consumed. The next step will be to apply the method to portable drinking containers that can be shipped to a variety of high-risk areas throughout the world.