Speeding up desalination: Scientists develop a new type of nanoparticle material that can efficiently desalinate

A scientific research team composed of researchers from the Russian Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), ITMO University and the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences has just introduced the development of efficient desalination in the ACS "Applied Materials and Interface" journal A new type of nanoparticle material
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It can be seen that this kind of titanium dioxide nanoparticles with "gold ornaments" can convert about 96% of the solar energy absorbed into heat, thereby speeding up the evaporation of seawater desalination plants to 2.
5 times, and can be used to track harmful molecules and compounds
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? FEB RAS senior researcher ALexander Kuchmizhak (from: FEFU press release) According to the issues raised in the 2019 report of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), about 2.
2 billion people worldwide lack safe drinking water
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However, the technology demonstrated by Russian scientists is expected to provide safe water support for the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals
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One of the ways to provide clean drinking water is to desalinate seawater through evaporative collectors
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However, in order to increase production capacity, in the past five years, many international research teams have been actively looking for new materials that can increase the evaporation rate
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In addition to university researchers from FEFU, FEB RAS and ITMO, this achievement cannot be separated from the assistance of colleagues from Spain, Japan, Bulgaria, and Belarus
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And the researchers claim that while accelerating the evaporation rate of seawater desalination plants, the new nanomaterials can also be used as optical monitors in sensor systems to track tiny traces of various substances in the liquid
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Looking to the future, we may see it in the fields of microfluidic biomedical systems, laboratories on a chip, and environmental monitoring of water pollutants, antibiotics or viruses
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Research picture (from: ACS) Research co-author Alexander Kuchmizhak, senior researcher at the FEB RAS Institute of Automation and Control Processes, said: “Under laser irradiation, the initially crystallized titanium dioxide becomes a completely amorphous crystal, thus obtaining a powerful Light absorption characteristics"
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In addition, the decoration and doping of the material by the gold nanoclusters further promotes the absorption of visible light
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At first, the research team planned to use this specificity in the context of photovoltaics, but soon realized that thanks to the new amorphous structure, the nanoparticles in the active layer of solar cells will convert solar energy into heat instead of electricity
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Based on this idea, they began to try to use this kind of nano heater in the desalination tank, and the result was positive feedback in the laboratory environment
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It is worth mentioning that the materials used in the research were also obtained through simple and environmentally friendly liquid laser ablation technology
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Stanislav Gurbatov, an initial researcher at FEFU Institute of Technology, added: “We added titanium dioxide nanopowder to the liquid containing gold ions, and irradiated this mixture with auroral pulses in the visible spectrum
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” This method does not require expensive equipment or hazardous chemicals, and can be easily optimized to synthesize unique nanomaterials at a rate of several grams per hour
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Although the original titanium dioxide nanoparticles cannot absorb visible light laser radiation, the nano-gold clusters formed on the surface can play a catalytic role, thereby stimulating further melting of the titanium dioxide
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The hybrid nano-particles fused to form a unique nano-morphology, and the nano-gold clusters are located inside and on the surface of the titanium dioxide
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In the end, the non-static titanium dioxide nanopowder with "golden ornaments" presents an almost pure black appearance, just like a black hole in space, absorbing the entire visible spectrum and converting it into heat
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In sharp contrast, the commercially available titanium dioxide powder used as the raw material looks closer to white instead
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The details of this research have been published in the recently published ACS "Applied Materials & Interfaces" journal
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The original title is "Black Au-Decorated TiO2 Produced via Laser Ablation in Liquid"
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