Although users can read it if they want – it contains information on how and why to make water drinkable – in reality its magical powers are only seen in its pages under a microscope: copper or silver nanoparticles whose mission is to kill harmful bacteria.
That is, these pages function as filters to purify water from contaminated sources, which constitute one of the main health problems in underdeveloped and developing countries: 663 million people do not have, today, access to suitable water for direct consumption.
It is enough to tear off a leaf and use it to strain the liquid from wells, rivers, streams … Experiments carried out in 25 contaminated sources in South Africa, Ghana and Bangladesh showed that they killed 99% of the pathogens , killed by absorbing silver ions or copper.
Each page is used for 100 liters of water , so one of these filter books would supply the drinking water needs of a person for approximately four years. Presented at the 250th conference of the American Chemical Society in Boston, the invention has been created by researcher Teri Dankovich, from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh), who collaborates with NGOs such as iDE or Water is Life.
