Water was purified from “eternal chemicals” in half a minute using magnets

Chemists from the University of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology have developed

A new method of water purification from "eternal chemicals"The resulting mixture can be easily cleaned with an ordinary magnet.

The secret of the method is in a special solution,developed by chemists. It contains substances that they call magnetic fluorine-containing polymer sorbent. These particles, on the one hand, have magnetic properties, and on the other hand, they actively interact with polysurfactants due to their chemical structure, including the presence of perfluoropolyether and cationic groups in the composition.

Purification of water from polysurfactants using magnets. Video: Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology

When a sorbent is added to a solution contaminated"eternal chemicals", it binds to FPAS. Such complex particles can be easily and quickly removed by any magnetic field. In a series of tests, scientists have shown that the new method removes more than 95% of most known types of surfactants in 30 seconds, including more than 99% of GenX, one of the most difficult to remove substances.

Fluorosurfactants(in English, per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS) are a class of chemicals with very strong fluorine-carbon bonds. Since the 1940s, these substances have been actively used in industrial production around the world due to their special water and grease repellent properties. The disadvantage of FPAS is that they practically do not decompose under natural conditions, and therefore such particles remain in the soil and pollute water.

Types of FPAS that were purified using the new method (a), device operation (b) and purification efficiency (c). Image: Xiao Tan et al., Angewandte Chemie

Over the past decades, chemists aroundThe world is working on the creation of various methods of water purification and artificial destruction of FPAS. Unfortunately, most of them are either lengthy or expensive and energy-intensive. The authors of the paper believe that their magnetic solution offers an effective alternative. Cleaning in this case is much faster than with other technologies, and starting the reaction does not require energy.

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Cover image: University of Queensland