Sharmila Mukhopadhyay and her researchers are developing near molecular-sized “nano-brushes.”
These fuzzy structures have bristles made up of thousands of tiny, jellyfish-like strands. The increased surface area of the bristles, with proper coatings, allows them to behave like powerful cleaners that kill bacteria and destroy contaminants that pollute water.
“It absolutely should work,” said Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D., director of Wright State’s Center for Nano-Scale Multifunctional Materials. “I’m pretty excited about this because the potential, I know, is huge.”
The need to efficiently purify water is mushrooming into a massive global issue as human and industrial consumption of water grows.
The United Nations estimates that about 1.1 billion people currently lack access to safe water. Several forecasts suggest that freshwater may become the “oil” of the 21st century – expensive, scarce and the cause of geo-political conflicts.
This would be the first large scale, infra-structural use of nanotechnology. To read more, click here.