Water for the World: University of Rhode Island researchers available for interview

Access to safe water, proper sanitation and hygiene are essential for human survival. As the United Nations convenes its first major conference on water quality since 1977, researchers at the University of Rhode Island are seeking better ways to provide potable water and stop pollution from contaminating water supplies.

‘Nanojars’ capture dissolved carbon dioxide, toxic ions from water

Carbon dioxide dissolves in oceans, lakes and ponds, forming bicarbonate ions that can reenter the atmosphere as carbon dioxide later. Now, researchers have developed tiny “nanojars” that split bicarbonate into carbonate and capture it. They will present their results at ACS Fall 2021.

MTU engineers clean up water pollution with sunlight

In addition to providing vitamin D, helping flowers grow and creating the perfect excuse to head to the beach, sunlight also helps break down chemicals in streams, lakes and rivers. Michigan Tech’s Daisuke Minakata has developed a comprehensive reactive activity model that shows how singlet oxygen’s reaction mechanisms perform against a diverse group of contaminants and computes their half-life in a natural aquatic environment.

Standard water treatment technique removes and inactivates an enveloped virus

Researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology have discovered that a standard water treatment technique, called iron (III) coagulation, and its electrically driven counterpart, iron (0) electrocoagulation, can efficiently remove and inactivate a model enveloped virus.