Sunlight
Speeding up sunlight: Using nanotechnology for natural water purification.
Organic water pollutants from industrial activities pose a threat to humans and animals all over the world. Nanotechnology in combination with sunlight can protect against these harmful substances.
- Sun naturally degrades organic pollutants such as phenol, but this process can be sped up. For example, zinc oxide nanorods can help catalyze the sun’s power and degrade these pollutants faster.
- In our research, we have demonstrated efficient degradation (80 per cent in just 6 hours) and cleaning of real textile waste water by using solar light.
- We believe this technology has great potential for applications in photocatalysis, a natural and environmentally friendly process for degrading of pollutants.
KTH has cutting-edge expertise in preparing a large variety of nanoparticulate systems with extraordinary physical and chemical properties which are of great environmental, scientific, and technical interest. We can design nanostructured materials tailored for specific applications, such as helping the sun to purify water!
