Is this the answer to clean drinking water,
An estimated 663 million people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, yet finding an efficient way to disinfect the vital liquid has proved difficult. However, researchers have designed a new device which could solve this issue, using a resource readily available in most climates. The disinfection device is powered by the sun, and can rapidly kill bacteria to deliver safe drinking water. The device has been designed by researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University in California, who wanted to create a more efficient water purification system. While other solar disinfection devices do exist, these rely on ultraviolet light, which represents only four per cent of the total solar energy. This leads to a very slow treatment speed of up to 48 hours, limiting the amount of water people can disinfect. To counteract this issue, the researchers developed new materials that can harvest visible light – which represents aroun...