Nano Cotton Can Be Used To Kill Bacteria In Water.

Contain

This new filter can produce bactericidal effect only with gravity and weak current. It is very suitable for portable water treatment equipment.

"This fabric is easy to produce," said Cui Yi, a professor at Stanford University in California.

His team soaked a piece of cotton in a simple carbon nanotube solution and dripped the liquid containing silver nanowire into the cotton with a pipette.

Scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that the carbon nanotubes would stick to a single cotton fiber while the larger silver nanowires were on the surface.

So when he and his colleagues had contaminated the E.coli contaminated water through the conductive silver coated fabric, they found that 89% of the bacteria were killed.

If the fabric is continuously passed through three layers, they can kill 98% of the bacteria so that the water can be safely drunk.

After testing the fabric with other microbes, Professor Cui now wants to ensure that carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires are not washed into the water.

Cui Yi said, "so far, evidence has shown that we have not yet succeeded in achieving this."

"This is an interesting academic research," said Eric Hoek, a nanoengineer at University of California at Los Angeles.

He pointed out that testing whether potentially fatal carbon nanotubes entered the water is a key step in the research application.