Australian scientists have developed ultra-fast nano filters for clean water sources

Researchers from Australia have designed a nano-fast filter. Compared to the prior art, the filter washes dirty water 100 times faster than it. Equipment is easy to scale up to scale production. The technology uses nanostructures naturally grown on liquid metal. Researchers at RMIT and UNSW are the creators of this innovation, demonstrating the ultra-fast filtration of heavy metals in water. And oil is achievable.

Each 0.03 mm sheet is stacked from approximately 20,000 nanosheets. Dr. Ali Zavabeti, a researcher at RMIT, said that water pollution is still one of the major challenges facing the world – one out of every nine people has no clean water at home. “The heavy metal pollution can cause serious health problems, especially children are more vulnerable,” Zavabeti said. Our new nanofilters are sustainable, environmentally friendly , scalable and less expensive. We have proven that it can remove lead and oil from water, but we also know that it is also effective for other common pollutants. Previous studies have shown that the materials we use are effective in absorbing contaminants such as mercury, sulfates and phosphates. With further development and commercial support, this new nanofilter can be a cheap and ultra-fast solution to the problem of dirty water.

The liquid metal chemistry process developed by researchers has broad application prospects, including: electronics, membranes, optics and catalysis. "The technology has important industrial value because it can be easily upgraded, liquid metal can be reused, and This process requires very short reaction times and low temperatures," Zavabeti said. The project leader is Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, who is also an Honorary Professor of the Australian Research Council, an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Research Council and a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of New South Wales. He said that the liquid metal chemistry used in the process can make different shapes. The nanostructures are grown or can be applied to sheet or nanofiber structures of nanofilter atomic thickness. These materials have traditionally been grown in a power-intensive manner, requiring high temperatures, large processing times, and the use of toxic metals. Liquid metal chemistry avoids all of these problems, so it is a good alternative.

What is its operating mechanism?

Breakthrough technology has four characteristics: sustainability, environmental friendliness, scalability, and low cost. Researchers make alloys by combining gallium-based liquid metals with aluminum. When the alloy is exposed to water, the nano-sized flaky aluminum oxide compound naturally grows on the surface. These atomic thin layers are 100,000 times thinner than human hair and are re-stacked in a pleated manner to make them highly porous. This property allows water to pass quickly and the alumina compound is responsible for absorbing contaminants. Experiments have shown that nanofilters made from stacked atomic sheets can effectively remove lead that is contaminated and 13 times safer than safe drinking levels, and is very good at separating oil from water.

This process does not waste. Liquid metal can be reused on new nanostructures simply by aluminum and water. Researchers have developed methods for growing nanostructured materials such as ultra-thin sheets and nanofibers. These different shapes have different characteristics. The ultra-thin sheets used in the nanofilter experiments have high mechanical stiffness, while the nanofibers are highly translucent. The ability to grow materials with different properties facilitates the customization of different shapes to enhance their different properties in many fields such as electronics, membranes, optics and catalysis.