Scientists have developed a new water purification system that can filter out small plastic particles and other pollutants very quickly and with high efficiency. The porous material, described in the journal Advanced Materials, may be used as a highly efficient adsorption material in the future because it is cost-competitive based on raw materials and enables a solar-based water purification process.
Professor Park Chi-Young of the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and of Technology (DGIST) in Korea said “This technology is unmatched with the highest cleaning efficiency in the world, removing more than 99.9 percent of phenolic microplastics and volatile organic compound (VOC) contaminants in water at ultra-high speeds, We expect it to be a universal technology with high economic efficiency that can purify contaminated water and supply drinking water even in areas without electricity supply”.
A major environmental pollution problem is water pollution caused by the rapid development of the chemical industry. Various water purification technologies and materials have been developed to solve this problem. The researchers noted that porous carbon-based materials using existing adsorption mechanisms have limitations in that the rate of adsorption is slow and high thermal energy is required for recycling.
Various materials have been developed to improve contaminant removal efficiency, but it has been difficult to develop materials that simultaneously meet excellent recyclability, high efficiency, economic efficiency of raw materials, and industrialization potential. The team synthesized a porous polymer with excellent adsorption performance and photothermal properties by reacting a cheap and efficient precursor.
The new technology enables a material with rapid adsorption of micropollutants in the aquatic environment. The experiments confirmed that the polymer does not require high thermal energy for recycling and can be used multiple times without losing performance, the researchers said.
The team created a water treatment membrane capable of evaporating water using solar energy as a driving force due to the ability of the developed polymer to absorb light broadly and convert the absorbed light into heat. An oxidized polymer-coated water treatment membrane has been confirmed to purify phenolic contaminants through solar radiation.
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