News From the Field
New Material Shows Promise for Trapping Pollutants

September 6, 2011

Water-softening techniques are very effective for removing minerals such as calcium and magnesium, that occur as positively charged ions in "hard" water. But many heavy metals and other inorganic pollutants form negatively charged ions in water, and existing water-treatment processes to remove them are inefficient and expensive. Chemists at University of California, Santa Cruz, have now developed a new type of material that can soak up negatively charged pollutants from water. Full Story

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University of California, Santa Cruz

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