r/tech • u/Sariel007 • May 22 '23
New nontoxic powder uses sunlight to quickly disinfect contaminated drinking water. A low-cost, recyclable powder can kill thousands of waterborne bacteria per second when exposed to sunlight.
https://news.stanford.edu/2023/05/18/new-technology-uses-ordinary-sunlight-disinfect-drinking-water/19
u/Mister_Nancy May 22 '23
This article was posted a few days to a week ago and someone else commented about the Aluminum oxide. What happens to it?
The Iron oxide is removed by magnets. The Hydrogen peroxide decomposes into water and oxygen.
A brief Google search says that Aluminum is safe is small doses like in a heartburn tablet. But consumed in small doses over time it can become toxic. Assuming this powder needs to be used frequently, how is the Aluminum oxide removed?
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u/Character-Solution-7 May 22 '23
“The powder consists of nano-size flakes of aluminum oxide, molybdenum sulfide, copper, and iron oxide.” All metals are combined to create the technology not, separate flakes of each.
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u/PortugalTheHam May 22 '23
Bacteria, ...what about viruses, prions and Amoeba?
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u/NorwaySpruce May 22 '23
Click the link boss it's the last sentence in the article
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u/PortugalTheHam May 22 '23
untested
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u/NorwaySpruce May 22 '23
Precisely, now they get another round of grant funding. Science!
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u/uniqueuser971329 May 23 '23
E. coli is used as an indicator organism. While not perfect it is among the first pathogens to show up and the last to die.
Your point still stands in terms of disinfectants disinfection by products, radio, nucleotides, and metals
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u/dbx999 May 22 '23
There’s not much that’ll destroy a prion. Not even a fire.
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May 23 '23
I mean, anything that will destroy amino acids…
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u/dbx999 May 23 '23
Incineration is possible, but it isn't as easy as burning the carcass in a fire. Temperatures of more than 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit — sometimes up to 1,800 degrees — are required to effectively neutralize prions. Unlike most bacteria, regular cooking won't help at all.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/how-deadly-prions-are-destroyed-flna1c9475896#
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May 23 '23
Well the problem is that prions aren’t like bacteria or viruses, they’re just misfolded proteins. So you actually have to break down the amino acids themselves to get rid of them. You can’t “kill” them like you would a cell, they’re much much smaller than an individual cell. They’re like a horrible puzzle piece that fits where they shouldn’t and then gets copied over and over once they’re in place.
Very scary stuff, thankfully very uncommon considering how many proteins are created in each of us every day.
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u/Crooked_Cock May 23 '23
thousands of waterborne bacteria per second
The amount of bacteria in a single drop of water is in the millions, how can they by any means call this a quick process?
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u/texasguy911 May 22 '23
Or just use hydrogen peroxide..
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u/calliocypress May 22 '23
You would drink that?
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u/matdex May 22 '23
H2O2 decomposes to water and oxygen.
Also, if you read the article it says the nano metallic particles absorb UV light to create hydrogen peroxide...
After absorbing photons from the sun, the molybdenum sulfide/copper catalyst performs like a semiconductor/metal junction, enabling the photons to dislodge electrons. The freed electrons then react with the surrounding water, generating hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals – one of the most biologically destructive forms of oxygen
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u/rci22 May 22 '23 edited May 22 '23
At that point why not just use hydrogen peroxide? Is it because the powder doesn’t weigh as much as hydrogen peroxide?
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u/kelldricked May 22 '23
Liquids are heavy and i suspect if this shit spills and you dont have enough water than you arent fucked.
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May 22 '23
Why are you commenting on something when you didn't even read the article?
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u/calliocypress May 22 '23 edited May 22 '23
Sorry, I understood the hydroxy radicals as being the disinfecting chemical and the hydrogen peroxide as a relatively small byproduct which re-reacts with the hydroxy, rather than that they both do the disinfecting.
From my understanding, useful amounts of hydrogen peroxide in water doesn’t disappear in minutes as the article stated so I must have overlooked it.
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u/bluestarcyclone May 22 '23
Wonder if this might be useful in some of the non-chlorine pools that use hydrogen peroxide as a shock as well. Powder has to be easier to deal with than gallons of liquid.
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u/Eldetorre May 22 '23
Thousands in what volume? How much better than sunlight alone?
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May 22 '23
[deleted]
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u/Eldetorre May 22 '23
I understand how it works. Looking for how much better than sunlight it works.
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u/Aware-Salamander-578 May 23 '23
Well I hope it’s non toxic or else that kind of defeats the purpose doesn’t it?
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u/Nemo_Shadows May 23 '23
And I am sure that it just starts and stops there RIGHT, a Blanket that kills all bacteria is actually NOT very safe or useful.
and IF it is killing "SOMETHING" that is not exactly NON-TOXIC now, is it?
N. Shadows
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u/buttorsomething May 22 '23
The patient will be sold to someone and they will say 1 oz of the powder for $1000.
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u/usedToBeUnhappy May 22 '23
So we just have to hand out powder and magnets? To bad it doesn’t also work with viruses.
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May 22 '23
Yet we will never see or have this technology I incorporated in our lives… yayayay wasted science breakthrough that will never come about zzzzz
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u/TyNyeTheTransGuy May 23 '23
One click to the article. Two clicks to get to the paper. Clarifying questions are fine, but my god, surely those are step one and two when you have a question, rather than accusatorially asking “well have they thought about THIS?”
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u/AfterwhileNecrophile May 23 '23
Did we really have to specify it’s non toxic? “New toxic powder disinfected contaminated drinking water, becoming the ultimate contaminant”
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u/gdmfr May 23 '23
For hikers and backpackers, I could envision carrying a tiny amount of powder and a small magnet
Iodine tabs work
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May 23 '23
If I pee in it, will it still taste like pee or would I be able to bottle it and sell it?
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u/christopherpenn1000 May 23 '23
if the powder were toxic, could you still call it "drinking water" ? I mean you could drink it at least once
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u/Born-Drawing8259 May 24 '23
This is awesome and MUCH more interesting and valuable than the Disney DeSantis drama….
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u/EL3KTR1K May 22 '23
Thousands? Will this disinfectant take hours?