Scientist Develops Ultra-Thin Material From Fruit Waste For Solar-Powered Water Purification

A scientist from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University developed an ultra-thin material from fruit waste that can purify contaminated water through a simple, economical method.

Assistant Professor Edison Ang successfully created electrical-conducting compounds called MXenes from coconut husks, orange peels, and banana peels. MXenes, which are typically expensive and complicated to produce and share similar properties with graphene, have excellent light-to-heat conversion efficiency and water adsorption.

With Ang’s simple and cheaper way to produce MXenes, he can distill contaminated water using sunlight and MXenes inside solar stills. This method has proven to be more sustainable, portable, and affordable.

“[A solar still] doesn’t require any electricity because we’re using renewable solar energy, so it is very easy to deploy. As long as you have sunlight, you can use it. This will be especially beneficial to the underprivileged community. When we tested our water quality against PUB standards, we met those drinking standards,” he said in an interview.

Read the full article here to learn more about MXenes and his more economical way of cleaning water.

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