Engineers at Washington University have figured out a way to turn dirty water into drinkable water by using graphene oxide sheets.

This new approach chains graphene oxide and bacteria-produced cellulose to form one bi-layered biofoam, as detailed in theirpaperpublished inAdvanced Materials.

“The process is extremely simple,” said Srikanth Singamaneni, an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and material science.

“The beauty of this is that the entire network of nanoscale cellulose fiber produced by bacteria has outstanding ability to move the water to the evaporative surface from bulk along with minimizing the heat, and the whole thing is produced in one go.”

The cellulose at the bottom of the biofoam acts like a sponge and soak water up to the graphene oxide. On rapid evaporation, theclean wateris collected from the top of the sheet.

Fascinatingly, the process in which the biofoam is formed, functions in the same way as when an oyster makes a pearl. The bacteria develops layers of nanocellulose fibers, ehich is then embedded by the graphene oxide flakes.

The major benefit of this biofoam is that it’s extremely light and inexpensive to produce.

“Cellulose can be produced on a huge scale,” Singamaneni reports, “and graphene oxide is tremendously low-priced—people can produce loads, truly loads, of it. Both materials going into this are highly accessible. So one can easily produce huge sheets of the biofoam.”

Researchers have found, the properties of this synthesized foam material to have features that enhance solar energy harvesting, making it more effective at putting an end to the bacteria and contaminants in the water.

“We hope that for countries where there is abundant sunlight, such as India, you’ll be able to take some dirty water, evaporate it, and collect some fresh water, using our material,” Singamaneni states.

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Author: Technology and Beyond