Theresa Dankovich at Carnegie Mellon University had a nifty idea of bringing high quality water filtration to just about anywhere thanks to filter paper that can screen out waterborne bacteria. The technology works like coffee filters, but the actual filter paper comes in the form of a book. Simply tear out a sheet and stick it inside a funnel for immediate filtration.
The paper has silver nanoparticles within its structure that are known to kill bacteria. To see whether the device actually works in real environments, Dr. Dankovich took the paper to areas of Bangladesh where natural water sources are used and showed that the Drinkable Book paper was effective at removing 99% of bacteria from the paper. She and her team now hopes to boost production of the paper and spread knowledge of how to make it so it can produced cheaply anywhere there’s an oven.
Here’s a news briefing about the technology that was held yesterday at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society:
Info page: The Drinkable Book…
