Materials: A recyclable method for clean water
Nature Communications
2013년5월1일
A strategy for removing oils and other organic pollutants from water using a material which is re-usable is reported in Nature Communications this week. Porous boron nitride, a nanostructured material which is structurally related to grapheme, is capable of absorbing many times its own weight in oils and it may be easily cleaned for reuse by heating in air.
Many nanostructured materials with high surface areas are capable of absorbing organic pollutants from water but regeneration and recycling ability has been a problem. Boron nitride possesses many of the structural requirements for an absorbent material, along with chemical and thermal stability, and Weiwei Lei and colleagues have shown that it is capable of absorbing 33 times its own weight in oil. They also show that it may be regenerated quickly by simply burning the oil, or more efficiently, with a near complete regeneration of absorbent properties, by heating in a furnace for 2 hours. They suggest that this material may be suitable for a wide range of applications in local water purification and treatment.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms2818
리서치 하이라이트
-
7월7일
Public health: Tackling adolescent stressNature
-
6월23일
Scientific community: Women credited less than men in scientific paper authorshipNature
-
5월12일
Geoscience: Monitoring earthquakes at the speed of lightNature
-
5월4일
Microbiology: Bacteriophage therapy helps treat multi-drug resistant infection in an immunocompromised patientNature Communications
-
4월27일
Planetary science: Building blocks of DNA detected in meteoritesNature Communications
-
4월8일
Health: Psilocybin use associated with lower risk of opioid addictionScientific Reports