Considering that more than 2 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, innovative solutions to the global water crisis are at an all-time premium. With that in mind, a team of researchers has recently developed a “green” material that uses sunlight to purify enough daily drinking water for four people in just one hour. The material releases electrons when exposed to light to create destructive oxygen-based chemicals that eliminate microbes. In tests, it killed nearly 100 percent of bacteria, including E. coli, in almost half the time it usually takes for similar technology to work. If scaled up, the novel material could potentially serve as a solution to produce water for underdeveloped and remote regions that lack a central supply of clean water.
Innovative material uses sunlight to purify drinking water
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