2023-08-02 テキサス大学オースチン校(UT Austin)
◆その中で最も注目すべきは、マグカップサイズの装置で、わずかな電気エネルギーを使用して細菌を取り除くことができる水の迅速な浄化です。この装置は、E. coli菌を99.997％除去することに成功し、非常に効率的かつ低コストで、家庭や車、オフィスで使用可能です。商業用の他の水浄化方法に比べて優れた特性を持ち、災害時に池や川から水を浄化して飲用水として利用できることから、将来的に重要な需要を満たす装置として期待されています。研究者は装置の商品化を目指し、さらなる改良を行う計画です。
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.utexas.edu/2023/08/02/water-purifying-cup-makes-drinkable-water-from-creeks-and-streams/
- https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.2c12229
多様に分岐した多孔性グラファイトの電場中で細菌を生きたまま捕捉し、ポータブル大量水消毒を実現 Portable Bulk-Water Disinfection by Live Capture of Bacteria with Divergently Branched Porous Graphite in Electric Fields
Xianfu Luo, Weigu Li, Zexi Liang, Yifei Liu, and Donglei Emma Fan
ACS Nano Published:May 24, 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.2c12229
Abstract
Easy access to clean water is essential to functioning and development of modern society. However, it remains arduous to develop energy-efficient, facile, and portable water treatment systems for point-of-use (POU) applications, which is particularly imperative for the safety and resilience of society during extreme weather and critical situations. Here, we propose and validate a meritorious working scheme for water disinfection via directly capturing and removing pathogen cells from bulk water using strategically designed three-dimensional (3D) porous dendritic graphite foams (PDGFs) in a high-frequency AC field. The prototype, integrated in a 3D-printed portable water-purification module, can reproducibly remove 99.997% E. coli bacteria in bulk water at a few voltages with among the lowest energy consumption at 435.5 J·L–1. The PDGFs, costing $1.47 per piece, can robustly operate at least 20 times for more than 8 h in total without functional degradation. Furthermore, we successfully unravel the involved disinfection mechanism with one-dimensional Brownian dynamics simulation. The system is practically applied that brings natural water in Waller Creek at UT Austin to the safe drinking level. This research, including the working mechanism based on dendritically porous graphite and the design scheme, could inspire a future device paradigm for POU water treatment.
