'Super sand' to help clean up dirty drinking

[Still Waters]

Contaminated water can be cleaned much more effectively using a novel, cheap material, say researchers.

Dubbed "super sand", it could become a low-cost way to purify water in the developing world.

The technology involves coating grains of sand in an oxide of a widely available material called graphite - commonly used as lead in pencils.

The team describes the work in the American Chemical Society journal Applied Materials and Interfaces.

In many countries around the world, access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities is still limited.

The World Health Organization states that "just 60% of the population in Sub-Saharan African and 50% of the population in Oceania [islands in the tropical Pacific Ocean] use improved sources of drinking-water."

The graphite-coated sand grains might be a solution - especially as people have already used sand to purify water since ancient times.

Read more...

[Blues Girl]

Hmm. Interesting. But how much would it cost the developing country to pay for access of this technology, I wonder?

[Persia]

Sand is a cheap and easy to find water filter. It's also not a very good water filter. But a new development--coating sand in graphite--could make it possible for everyone in the world to have easy access to clean water.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1763872/how-super-sand-could-provide-drinking-water-to-millions-of-people?partner=gnews

[Taut]

I applaud anyone trying to supply people with clean water, but what are the risks with graphite? Aren't charcoal, graphite and what have you carcinogens? Hope it's well bonded to the sand. I know we use charcoal filtering for a lot of things, but I don't know if anyone's really looked into possible risks. I'm sure someone has. Or someone here probably knows.

[oly]

Probably another way to poison Africans, along with mercury injections & gm.

[Legatus Legionis]

hope our government(here in the philippines) could bring this technology here, we are a 3rd world country and a lot of my countryman needs this.

[27vet]

Graphite? That will put lead in your pencil.

Actually, I believe that diatomaceous earth works well.

Edited July 1, 2011 by 27vet

[Torgo]

Graphite is pretty darn inert. I've got pieces of it inside my left hand from mishaps with a pencil in elementary school.

Does it work well against biological agents? That seems to be the REAL test.