In many parts of the world, access to clean water is a major unmet need. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a new hydrogel tablet, a prototype of which can disinfect a liter of river water in an hour.

The most common way to disinfect water is usually to boil it, but this takes a lot of time and effort, which may not be easy in developing regions. Scientists are using equipment such as solar stills, graphene filters, and automatic chlorine dispensers to solve this problem, but these equipment are often inefficient or still require energy.

For this new study, the researchers developed a method that should be relatively simple and run without energy. It is a hydrogel tablet, just put it in a container with water, it can kill more than 99.999% of bacteria in about an hour. The hydrogel can then be removed without leaving any residue or chemicals.

The tablet works by producing hydrogen peroxide, which, together with activated carbon particles, kills bacteria by disrupting their metabolism. The team stated that no harmful by-products will be produced in the process.

These hydrogel purifiers can also be used to improve other technologies, such as solar distillation. These systems focus the sun's heat to evaporate water and collect it in another container, leaving behind pollutants. This device may be clogged by microorganisms, but the team said that the new hydrogel can prevent this from happening.

The researchers said that although only small-scale tests have been conducted so far, the new hydrogels should also be easily scaled up. The materials and processes are cheap and simple, and these things can be molded into various shapes and sizes to suit specific use cases.

"Our multifunctional hydrogel can play a major role in alleviating global water shortages because it is easy to use, efficient, and has the potential to scale to large-scale production," said Yu Guihua, the corresponding author of the study.

The team said that the next step is to find a way to hone the hydrogel to kill more types of bacteria and viruses. Commercialization is already in progress.

The research was published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Source: University of Texas at Austin