UCLA NANOSCIENTISTS DEVELOP A BETTER WAY TO REMOVE POLLUTANTS FROM WATER

A team of researchers from the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA has found a new way to use enzymes to remove pollutants from water that is cost- and energy-efficient, able to remove multiple pollutants at once, and minimizes risks to public health and the environment. The advance could be an important new step in the effort to satisfy the world’s need for clean water for drinking and irrigation use. Current methods require multiple steps and involve chemicals that react to heat, sunlight or electricity. Scientists previously had shown that polluted water could be cleaned using enzymatic activities of naturally occurring bacteria and fungi, which breaks down pollutants into their harmless chemical components. But that method carries the risk of releasing dangerous organisms into the water.

The new UCLA technique, put enzymes into nanoscale particles called “vaults,” then deposit the tiny particles into polluted water. The scientists tested the method using an enzyme called manganese peroxidase. They found that over a 24-hour period the vaults removed three times as much phenol from the water as the enzyme did when it was dropped into the water without using vaults. These particles would be unlikely to pose risks to humans or the environment, because vaults grow in the cells of so many species.

Thanks to: scitechdaily.com