A research team from Rice University has discovered a chemical technique that significantly improves the power of common disinfectants. Instead of using their findings to make a profit, they have decided to openly share their knowledge in hopes of decreasing the time and money put into disinfectants and to potentially save lives by making powerful disinfectants more affordable and widely available. Common disinfectants are made up of titanium dioxide. These researchers found that when silicone is added to the titanium dioxide, the disinfectant degrades viruses much more effectively. The added silicone acts as a catalyst and makes it much less time consuming to disinfect water. These results are especially significant because many people across the globe do not have adequate access to water. My high school was very involved in studying the water crisis in Sudan and I learned that women in Africa travel an average of 8 miles round trip to provide water for their family. This new method can hopefully make safe drinking water more accessible because the process is much more efficient and cost effective. It can also be put into use in water treatments. Hopefully these chemical developments will continue and safe drinking water will never be scarce again.
See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110112080912.htm
Posted by Anne McGinty
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If these disinfectants are used, can the water be consumed immediately or would it still need to be filtered? I wonder if there are any harmful side-effects of ingesting too much silicone, although I suspect that any side-effects would be minimal compared to untreated water.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that silicon dioxide is a food additive used in salts, flours, powdered soups, tortilla chips and more. (http://food.oregonstate.edu/glossary/s/silicondioxide.html) This site does, however, mention restrictions on the percentage of silicon dioxide allowed in these products, so I'm guessing too much could be harmful.
ReplyDeleteSilcon and silicones seem to be very popular in environmental studies seeing as an earlier post mentioned the use of polysilicon in solar panels.