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Jun 6, 2013 / in Blog Articles

We at Filcon Filters are always on the lookout for new products when it comes to cleaning up the environment. And although the following  information came out a month ago it is worth bringing to our readers attention.   A report in Nature Communications shows that boron nitride or white grapheme as it is known, sheets of atoms laid out like a chain-link fence,  can preferentially soak up organic pollutants such as industrial chemicals or engine oil. The porous white grapheme has high selective absorption and adsorption properties, picking up organic pollutants. The family of these materials includes much-touted, carbon-based members such as graphene and nanotubes, and are notable in part for their surface area-to-weight ratio. That allows them to take up an incredible amount for their size, making them attractive for the clean-up of pollutants. The powder soaked up as much as 33 times its own weight in the chemical ethylene glycol and 29 times its own weight of engine oil. Even still, the saturated powder floats on water. The pollutants could then be driven out of the material by heating it in a commercial furnace, or by simply igniting it – a trick that other, more established materials could only survive a few times before becoming completely clogged up. A team from the Institute for Frontier Materials at Deakin University in Australia and the Pierre and Marie Curie University in France started by making porous boron nitride “nanosheets” – wavy, single-atom layers of the material with holes in them. We’ll monitor progress and keep you informed.Meanwhile Filcon Filters continues to provide clear solutions to all filtration and water treatment problems.