HOUSTON - Cleaning water is now easy and inexpensive and can be done by using crystals of a compound that is related to rust, according to American researchers.
The team of scientists said that by using crystals of iron oxide, which is the byproduct of rust, contaminated water can be cleaned and can be used for drinking. The research was conducted by a group of scientists from the Centre for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology at Rice University in Texas.
The researchers developed crystals as small as 12 nanometers wide using nanotechnology. These crystals were then mixed with contaminated water. After some time, they found that the crystals were coated with poison and were acting like iron filings. They were then removed with the help of a strong magnet, and when the water was tested, it was found to be well within the international safety limits.
Professor Doug Natelson, one of the authors of the report, said that the trick was not new and was being practiced by chemical engineers for years adding that the team was surprised to see that the particles could be removed by using hand-held magnets in some of the cases.
"The trick here is that these particles are very, very small, which means they're essentially all surface. So the arsenic sticks to the surface of the particles, and what we've found is that when the nanoparticles are in the right range of sizes, you can pull them out of solution with a relatively small magnetic field gradient that you could get from, say, a permanent magnet", he said.
Professor Natelson said that this technology, if proved, would be like a boon for many countries where drinking water, contaminated with arsenic, is posing a grave problem. "You'd have little packets that had this powder in it, you'd fill up your pitcher of water, you'd dump in the powder, stir it up, let it sit for a little bit, and then you'd have a permanent magnet that draws all the minerals down towards the bottom of the pot, and then you pour off the relatively clean water", he added.
