Functional Nanocoatings for Water Purification

Equitable access to water is critical to eradicating poverty, improving human health, and promoting economic growth. For instance, the remediation of contaminated groundwater is of high priority to billions of people around the world for drinking. Conventional water treatment methods (e.g., solvent extraction, electrochemical, ion exchange, precipitation, microbiological methods) tend to involve large scale facilities which require high levels of capital costs, technical expertise, and can generate large amounts of residual waste-all of which make it difficult for their implementation at the local village level or in rapidly evolving humanitarian situations. In this project, functional nanocoatings will be fabricated for the targeting of specific pollutant removal from contaminated water supplies. The aim will be to capture many different pollutants simultaneously by utilising an array of such systems, whilst minimising environmental impact through recyclability.