Pottery inspired nano-enabled ceramic filters for point-of-use water treatment

Navid B. Saleh, Stetson Rowles III, and Desmond Lawler

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering email: navid.saleh@utexas.edu

tel: 512-471-9175 (O)

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Outline

Human-centered technology development

Upconversion materials for disinfection

MW upconversion and disinfection results

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Research Vision

768 million lack access to safe drinking water

0.75 million children die each year from waterborne diseases

Limited access to safe water not only on Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa also in the developed world

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4 Website: http://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/saleh/index.html

Uranium Mines at Navajo Nation

Mining at Navajo Land

Between 1944 and 1985, 1150 mines were excavated at Navajo Land

Vanadium Corporation of America was the primary mining company

4 million tons of uranium was extracted

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Water Quality at Navajo Nation

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Health and Environmental Consequences

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POU FOR DISINFECTION

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Pottery for Water Treatment

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Example POUs for Disinfection

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UPCONVERSION

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Electromagnetic Spectrum

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Increasing energy

Principle of Upconversion

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Advantages of MW Upconversion

Widely available technology

Lowest energy radiation Does not require photo-transparency

Synthesized NHs

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MW Upconversion Achieved

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Metal Oxide Metal Oxide

Redesigning Water Filters

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Safe Design of Nano-enabled Ceramic Filter

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Summary

Point-of-use treatment technology can potentially reduce inequality in access

Navajo cultural ties with pottery can be effective

Redesigned candle filters with MW upconversion capable nanomaterials have strong practical potential

Safety needs to be ensured via aggregation, deposition, and bio-interaction work