Detecting the ability to filter bacteria in the water of pine

People in many parts of the world are still using water from rivers and lakes that contain many dangerous bacteria. Therefore, the water source needs to be filtered before use. While materials such as silver particles or titanium dioxide can solve the problem, developing countries or rural areas that are facing poverty still need a cheaper and easier solution to produce. than.

The MIT Institute of Technology has introduced a solution: using wood from pine or more specifically, the wood layer (soft outer layer of wood) to filter water.

Sawn wood is made of a porous material called xylem and the role of xylem is to transfer raw resin (including minerals and water) from the roots to the rest of the plant. The internal structure of xylem consists of a network of circuits connected by holes in the xylem walls . These holes are called concave membranes that allow raw plastic to flow from one IC to another along the length of the tree. The holes are so small that air bubbles cannot penetrate and this is a very important feature of xylem because the bubbles in the original plastic line can kill the plants.

Green E.coli bacteria are trapped on the concave membrane in pine wood of pine trees

MIT has discovered that the hole also allows water to pass through and of course they are small enough to block the bacteria. In the laboratory, the pieces of wood chips are stuck to the inside of the rubber tubes and the researchers then inject the water containing E. coli bacteria passing through. After that, the pieces of the wood were removed and the results showed that up to 99% of the bacteria in the water were trapped around the concave membranes.

According to the team's calculations, a 38mm wide wooden filter can be used to produce 4 liters of clean water every day. However, the filter plate is not allowed to dry when not in use. In addition, although wood can trap most types of bacteria, it seems that it cannot filter out viruses. So, MIT is planning to expand its research with other woods' wood because their concave membranes are smaller in size and can retain viruses.

In fact, not only can wood from trees prevent bacteria. A study conducted in 2010 also showed the same ability from the seed of the moringa (Moringa oleifera).

A research report from MIT has just been published in PLoS ONE.