Blog @ NanoVic - Nanotechnology Blog

The people of South Australia, faced with living in the driest state on the driest continent on earth, know the value of clean fresh water. Researchers at the Ian Wark Research Institute at the University of South Australia have used a nano approach to produce clean, safe drinking water. Billions of people around the world do not have access to safe drinking water, and the result is that a child dies every 15 seconds due to water-bourne disease. Methods for purifying water often require complex and expensive equipment that is difficult to maintain in areas around the world which need this technology the most.

In this study, reported in the International Journal of Nanotechnology, silica beads were coated with an active material based on a hydrocarbon with a silicon-containing anchor. This formed a nano-layer around each bead, so called Surface enegineered silica (SES). The process works by simply mixing Surface engineered silica beads with contaminated water. After stirring for an hour and filtering out the beads the water was tested. Biological molecules, pathogens such as viruses like the Polio virus, bacteria like Escherichia coli, and Cryptosporidium parvum, which is a waterborne parasite were all removed. This process was effective across the normal pH ranges of drinking water, and the researchers attribute the removal of organic material by electrostatic attraction and immobilisation on the surface of the particles.

This is a great example of how nanotechnology is not just a ‘gimmick science’ aiming to produce endless gadgets for us, but how it is a science that can genuinely have an impact on improving the lives of many people. And also a great example of Australian nanotechnology at work!

Daniel Tune is about to commence his honours year in a Bachelor of Nanotechnology at Flinders University and has been working with Bridge8 over the summer. Daniel’s honours thesis will be examining organic dye-sensitized solar cells. Issues relating to energy are central to Daniel’s interests, so we asked him to write some blogs on opportunities for nanotechnology in energy. Click here to read profiles on the Max Water windmill, ink-printed solar cells and body batteries that transform mechanical energy into electricity.

The premier journal Nature Nanotechnology has published two free online papers as part of a global effort to raise awareness and stimulate research into poverty and human research. The articles discuss how nantoechnology might impact on countries of the developing world. The first publication, entitled Nanotechnology and the Challenge of Clean Water, presents the opinion that although nanoscience does offer a great deal of potential for increasing global access to appropriate drinking water, care must be taken to ensure that nanotechnology transfer is accompanied by technology adaptation and technology adoption to suit the country in which it is applied. The second publication, Are Natural Resources a Curse?, presents an interesting discussion pertaining to the changes in global demand for elemental resources with emerging technologies, and how this can have a very strong impact on nations and commmunities. For example, should carbon nanotubes emerge as a contender to replace copper wires for transmission of electricity, countries such as Zambia may lose out since a quarter of its foreign exchange relies on minerals such as copper. Equally, it might be possible that nanotechnology adds value to a particular country’s exports in a way that mitigates heavy reliability on a particular resource. Follow the links to the articles above for more interesting aspects relating to nanotechology and the developing world; an editorial also addresses the issue. Clearly it’s a topic which requires further multidisciplinary discussion.

Australia’s social and economic growth and the need to develop alternative water supplies is an urgent issue. One of main challenges in overcoming Australia’s water shortage lies in the development of efficient, low energy processes to recover pure water from industrial, brackish and salt water resources.

The goal of the recently established Advanced Membrane Technologies for Water Treatment Research Cluster , is to investigate new, more efficient water treatment processes. They are investigating the development and use of carbon nanotube membranes in energy efficient water reuse and recycling processes. Carbon nanotubes are sheets of carbon atoms tightly rolled into tubes the diameter of only a few water molecules. The smooth inner walls of these nanotubes allow liquid to flow through, while the ultra-tiny pore size keeps out larger molecules. This reduces pressure requirements and saves energy and costs compared to other processes. This new nanotechnology could dramatically increase the energy efficiency and reduce the financial and environmental costs of producing desalinated and recycled water for Australia.

RASIRC™, the steam purification company, announces that its RainMaker Humidification System (RHS) was selected by the editors of R&D Magazine and MICRO/NANO newsletter as one of the most innovative products of 2007 in their Inaugural MICRO/NANO 25 Competition. RASIRC’s RHS is the first and only system to deliver precise amounts of ultra pure water vapor and simultaneously remove contaminants and dissolved gases. According to MICRO/NANO, technologies that are revealed to be the most innovative, the most groundbreaking, and those having the largest impact on a specific industry or society in general are selected for this award.

The NSTI Nanotech 2007 conference finishes today.  I will be presenting on the St Helena nano program SHINE this afternoon, one of very few education papers.  The conference has addressed research developments in bionano and health, water, materials development (especially carbon nantoubes and soft nano), and the Cleantech 2007 event has provided an excellent overiew of research and innovation in solar, wind and clean fuel technologies. It seems like nanotechnology has a lot to offer in addressing some of the world’s critical problems and it has been useful to find out more details. 

Apparently there is a lot more to boiling water than one might think.  Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NSTI) and Cornell University have uncovered the traces of ephemeral “nanobubbles” formed in boiling water on a microheater.  A unique ultrafast laser strobe microscopy technique was used to observe the process with an effective shutter speed of eight nanoseconds to photograph bubbles growing on a microheater surface about 15 micrometers wide.

These experiments are believed to be the first evidence that nanoscale bubbles can form on hydophilic surfaces and could have immediate implications for inkjet printing and even thermal cancer therapies.

My cup of tea will never look quite the same from now on - and no wonder I feel great after a cup if it contains all these nanobubbles!

Sustainability of water and energy resources is becoming increasingly important in this day and age. University of Technology Sydney industrial design student, Alexandra Gilmour, has recently been named as one of the Top 40 Australian Design Graduates, in Monument Magazine (March 2007, Edition 77) for her design of the “Swash” dishwasher. The Swash dishwasher is designed to use steam for cleaning and sterilisation, thus eliminating the need for detergent, and it also has a water reservoir and nanofiltration system, enabling the water supply to be continually purified and reused. The innovative design of Swash dishwasher also had Alexandra named as one of the 12 finalists in the 2006 Dyson Student Awards, one of the key events within the Australian Design Awards. Alexandra is currently undertaking a Masters Degree at UTS to develop a prototype system, to make this dream become a reality!

Researchers from Rice University’s Centre for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology have found an inexpensive method for removing hazardous levels of arsenic from drinking water, down to within international safety limits. The method uses magnetite nanocrystals as small as 12 nanometres (magnetite, also known as iron oxide is a rust-like material). When mixed with contaminated water these crystals become coated with arsenic. The coated particles can then be removed with a simple magnet. The nanocrystals have been found to be up to 100 times more effective than larger particles currently used in filters. Because the method used by the researchers is simple and inexpensive, people living in third world countries where arsenic poisoning is a problem could potentially use it to decontaminate their water.

Dr Sarah Morgan and I have just written a brief news bulletin outlining some of the issues facing the Australian water industry, including supply and quality. Sarah has been active in discussing nanotechnology solutions with water industry players. She has also been working on the commercial development of ultra-sensitive and reliable biosensors that can monitor phosphate and nitrate in water to provide early detection of algal blooms and other environmental issues. This started me thinking about the most crucial water issue for the world – would it be availability, cleanliness, supply or something else? And what would be the best water application for nanotechnology materials and diagnostics?