New solar-powered water filter could solve the problem of providing off-grid clean water
Apr 1 2021
A new invention that uses sunlight to drive water purification could help solve the problem of providing clean water off the grid.
The device resembles a large sponge that soaks up water but leaves contaminants - like lead, oil and pathogens - behind. To collect the purified water from the sponge, one simply places it in sunlight. The researchers described the device in a paper published this week in the journal
Advanced Materials.
The inspiration for the device came from the pufferfish, a species that takes in water to swell its body when threatened, and then releases water when danger passes, said the device s co-inventor Rodney Priestley, the Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Princeton s vice dean for innovation.
This cheap solar-powered water filter could remove contaminants
Credit: Xiaohui Xu/Princeton University
A new invention that uses sunlight to drive water purification could help solve the problem of providing clean water off the grid.
The device resembles a large sponge that soaks up water but leaves contaminants – like lead, oil and pathogens – behind.
To collect the purified water from the sponge, one simply places it in sunlight. The researchers described the device in a paper published this week in the journal Advanced Materials.
The inspiration for the device came from the pufferfish, a species that takes in water to swell its body when threatened, and then releases water when danger passes, said the device’s co-inventor Rodney Priestley, the Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Princeton’s vice dean for innovation.
The past year has revealed deep fractures in our economy, polity, and society, endangering not only lives but also long-term livelihoods. As policymakers chart a transition to a more inclusive recovery, how do we heal these fractures? This conference will explore the structural changes and innovative thinking required to restore norms, increase investment, and sustain economic growth that benefits all.
Presented by the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance, this online event will bring together academic researchers, industry practitioners, and government policymakers. The conference will be streamed live on YouTube and videos will be available in our YouTube Video Library. There is no fee to attend this conference, which is open to the University community as well as the public. Registration is required.
John Sullivan, Office of Engineering Communications
Catherine Zandonella, Office of the Dean for Research
Jan. 29, 2021 10 a.m.
On April 1, 2020, as the pandemic threatened to overwhelm area hospitals, Andrew Leifer was looking for a way to help. The Princeton University physicist connected with doctors at the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia who were working to prevent a looming shortage in machines used to keep patients breathing.
Penn Medicine, which runs hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, needed specialized machines to monitor the breathing patterns and flow of oxygen to patients undergoing noninvasive ventilation, a form of respiratory support that is gentler on the lungs and has caught on in popularity during the crisis. The hospitals needed the machines to meet exacting standards, and they needed them fast. Plus, there was a catch: the parts used to build the devices were nearly impossible to find. So Leifer and his colleagues at Princeton wo
A new view of biology
January 26, 2021Princeton
Cliff Brangwynne was seeing cells in the sidewalk again.
It was another long day in the lab at Harvard Medical School, where Brangwynne would often work late nights, staring at cells. Sometimes he spent so much time staring at cells through the microscope that the cells would follow him home, their shapes imprinted on his vision. Walking late at night, he’d see them dancing over the buildings and the empty streets and sidewalks.
Though Brangwynne was in his college years, he wasn’t a student in fact, some would call him a dropout. He’d been enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University, a first-generation college student, when a mixture of burnout and wanderlust prompted him to take a year off midway through his degree. At first he thought he would take a yearlong trip to Latin America. But he was interested in materials science he liked how it described the world in terms of math and physics. He also loved biology: he loved