New water filter kills disease-causing bacteria in just seconds

WASHINGTON - An inexpensive new filtering technology can kill up to 98 percent of disease-causing bacteria in water in just seconds without clogging.

American Chemical Society’s (ACS) award-winning podcast series, “Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions”, latest episode focused on development and successful initial tests of the technology.

The technology could aid many of the almost one billion people lacking access to clean, safe drinking water.

The new material developed by Yi Cui of Stanford University could avoid many deficiencies of traditional filters. For starters, it does not trap bacteria like most technologies. It kills them outright.

“The removal of bacteria and other organisms from water is very important, not only for drinking and sanitation but also in industry as there’s a frequent need to replace filters due to clogging,” said Cui in the podcast.

“The product we’ve developed could dramatically lower the cost of many filtration technologies for water as well as food, air, and pharmaceuticals, where the need to replace filters is common and very challenging,” Cui added.

A report on the work appears in the American Chemical Society’s monthly journal Nano Letters. (ANI)