A new way to clean up heavy metals
July 27th, 2007
The Philippines had several reported cases of oil spills such as the one in Guimaras which has threatened the living of the people as well as the small sea creatures. Bioremediation was the proposed treatment but it seemed that it was not at all implemented.
The new type of highly porous gel was said to soak up heavy metals may be useful for environmental cleanup, such as in oil spillage or mining spills accidents. It serves as a molecular sieve that can trap large metals present in a solution.
The researchers placed the gel in a solution containing smaller metal ions and larger, highly toxic metal ions such as mercury. The aerogel removed almost all of the mercury from the solution and also a number of organic compounds.
I remember that my high school classmates made a study regarding removing mercuric ions from water using *gasp* coconut husk. Mustve been fabricated. hahaha