Can nanosponges solve a continents water contamination problems?
Munyaradzi Makoni investigates. Some have likened them to honeycombs; others to unending teacups, each only a billionth of a metre wide. But when it came to naming them they just had to be called nanosponges. The idea is that one could clamp them across a water source — whether it is a kitchen tap or the pipe taking water into a power station — and they would soak up the fluid, catching impurities in their myriad tiny cavities and letting water through only in its purest form. South Africa is certainly hoping nanosponges will solve water purification problems where conventional treatments are not sufficient — from bringing clean water to all to decontaminating the coolant water that would otherwise rot a power plant’s turbines. But whether nanosponges will live up to their promise, both technically and economically, is unproven. They are expensive to produce and still imperfect. Nanosponges were invented at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States by DeQuan Li and Min Ma
