As everyone knows, the ultraviolet rays are one of the most effective killer of impurities in water and sun rays contain those in abundance, which is why it is only logical for them to be used to disinfect water. However, there were no devices that could help in the process but researchers have now come up with a device that can take care of the whole thing and in addition to that, it is also importnat to point out that instead of 2 whole days, this device will take far less time to disinfect.
According to a report in The Verve, "Using the sun to disinfect water is nothing new; UV rays start killing bacteria after six hours, although the process can take up to 48 hours. It's time-consuming, but often an only option in developing countries. Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University's Institute for Materials and Energy Science created a device to speed up that process. Their findings were published in Nature Nanotechnology earlier this week. The device, which is smaller than a postage stamp, not only uses UV rays but also the visible part of the solar spectrum to disinfect water."
In the same report, the device has also been described vividly. "The device is made of glass and invisible layers of molybdenum disulfide. That compound becomes a photocatalyst that produces hydrogen peroxide (a disinfectant) when hit with visible light. In this case, the device killed 99.99 percent of bacteria after 20 minutes of use in 25 milliliters of water. While this device is incredibly cheap and easy to manufacture, the researchers stipulate that they only tested it with lab-produced E. coli and lactic acid bacteria. It isn't proven to effectively destroy viruses or chemicals." If it is mass produced, then the device can definitely prove to be a blessing for developing or under developed nations which face an acute shortage of clean water.
