By substituting a single atom into a molecule widely used to purify water, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created a far more effective decontaminate with an improved shelf life.
The material removes bacterial, viral, organic, and inorganic contaminants from river water destined for human consumption, as well as wastewater from treatment plants prior to its return to the environment.
"Human consumption of 'challenged' water is increasing worldwide as preferred supplies become more scarce," said Sandia principal investigator May Nyman. "Technological advances like this may help solve problems faced by water treatment facilities in both developed and developing countries."
The study was published in June 2009 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology (a publication of the American Chemical Society) and highlighted in the June 22 edition of Chemical & Engineering News. Sandia is working with a major producer of water treatment chemicals to explore the commercial potential of the compound.
This bar graph shows the efficacy of removing wild-type bacteriophage from Rio Grande water using the all-aluminum coagulant (yellow), the gallium-aluminum coagulant (pink) and a germanium-aluminum coagulant (green). While the gallium-aluminum coagulant is most effective, the germanium-aluminum coagulant is less effective than the all-aluminum coagulant. The gallium makes the active ingredient for binding contaminants more stable and effective, while the germanium, introduced as another variable, was found to make the active ingredient less stable and less effective.
(Photo Credit: Mona Aragon, Sandia National Laboratories)
The water-treatment reagent, known as a coagulant, is made by substituting an atom of gallium in the center of an aluminum oxide cluster that is already a commonly used coagulant in water purification, says Nyman.
The substitution is not performed atom by atom using nanoscopic tweezers, but uses a rather simple chemical process of dissolving aluminum salts in water, gallium salts into a sodium hydroxide solution and then slowly adding the sodium hydroxide solution to the aluminum solution while heating.
"The substitution of a single gallium atom in that compound makes a big difference," said Nyman. "It greatly improves the stability and effectiveness of the reagent. We've done side-by-side tests with a variety of commercially available products. For almost every case, ours performs best under a wide range of conditions."
Wide-ranging conditions are inevitable, she said, when dealing with a natural water source such as a river. "You get seasonal and even daily fluctuations in pH, temperature, turbidity, and water chemistry. And a river in central New Mexico has very different conditions than say, a river in Ohio."
The new coagulant attracts and binds contaminants so well because it maintains its electrostatic charge more reliably than conventional coagulants made without gallium, itself a harmless addition.
The new material also resists converting to larger, less-reactive mixturess before it is used. This means it maintains a longer shelf life, avoiding the problem faced by othere commercially available products that combine over time.
"The chemical substitution [of a gallium atom for an aluminum atom] has been studied by Sandia's collaborators at the University of California at Davis, but nobody has ever put this knowledge to use in an application such as removing water contaminants like microorganisms," said Nyman.
The project was conceived and all water treatment studies were performed at Sandia, said Nyman, who worked with Sandia microbiologist Tom Stewart. Transmission electron microscope images of bacteriophages binding to the altered material were achieved at the University of New Mexico. Mass spectroscopy of the alumina clusters in solution was performed at UC Davis.
Sandia researchers May Nyman and Tom Stewart take a water sample on the banks of the Rio Grande. The two developed a patent-applied-for, material-based approach to purifying water that has generated commercial interest.
(Photo Credit: Randy Montoya, Sandia National Laboratories)
Source: DOE/Sandia National Laboratories