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Solar-powered nanofilters pump in antibiotics to clean contaminated water

Date:
May 1, 2013
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Using the same devious mechanism that enables some bacteria to shrug off powerful antibiotics, scientists have developed solar-powered nanofilters that remove antibiotics from the water in lakes and rivers twice as efficiently as the best existing technology.
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Using the same devious mechanism that enables some bacteria to shrug off powerful antibiotics, scientists have developed solar-powered nanofilters that remove antibiotics from the water in lakes and rivers twice as efficiently as the best existing technology. Their report appears in ACS' journal Nano Letters.

David Wendell and Vikram Kapoor explain that antibiotics from toilets and other sources find their way into lakes and rivers, with traces appearing in 80 percent of waterways. Those antibiotics foster emergence of new antibiotic-resistant bacteria, while harming beneficial microbes in ways that can degrade aquatic environments and food chains. Filters containing activated carbon can remove antibiotics from effluent at municipal sewage treatment plants, before its release into waterways. But activated carbon is far from perfect. So the scientists looked for a better technology.

They describe development and successful laboratory testing of capsule-like "vesicles" containing the very mechanism that enables bacteria to survive doses of antibiotics. This system pumps antibiotics out of bacterial cells before any damage can occur. Wendell and Kapoor turned it around, however, so that the system pumps antibiotics into the vesicles. That way, they can be collected and recycled or shipped for disposal. In addition to the pump, the vesicles contain a propulsion system driven by sunlight. The pump system could be adapted to clean hormones, heavy metals and other undesirable materials from water, the scientists state.


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Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Vikram Kapoor, David Wendell. Engineering Bacterial Efflux Pumps for Solar-Powered Bioremediation of Surface Waters. Nano Letters, 2013; 130417085101004 DOI: 10.1021/nl400691d

Cite This Page:

American Chemical Society. "Solar-powered nanofilters pump in antibiotics to clean contaminated water." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 May 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130501112848.htm>.
American Chemical Society. (2013, May 1). Solar-powered nanofilters pump in antibiotics to clean contaminated water. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 18, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130501112848.htm
American Chemical Society. "Solar-powered nanofilters pump in antibiotics to clean contaminated water." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130501112848.htm (accessed March 18, 2024).

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