Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion The latest in water filters: Nanotubes and Nanowires

Not that I'd ever use a filter,   but here is a great breakthrough in filter technology -- coating cotton fabric coated with carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires, then electrifying it. It's 80,000 times faster than existing filters.

From Stanford University News:
High-speed filter uses electrified nanostructures to purify water at low cost, Stanford Report, August 31, 2010.

The trick is that the electricity kills the bacteria rather than removing it from the water like conventional filters.

With that "80,000 times faster" claim, it must mean you just dump water through it!

Here's the image contained in the article:

Sheesh! How many nanowires would it take in a bundle to equal the size of that cotton fiber?

-- Thanks Bob R for sending me the link.

"The electrical current that helps do the killing is only a few milliamperes strong -- barely enough to cause a tingling sensation in a person and easily supplied by a small solar panel or a couple 12-volt car batteries. The electrical current can also be generated from a stationary bicycle or by a hand-cranked device."

Carry one of these options up Whitney???????

Hopefully they are talking about a size system for a village

me thinks that stuff would plug up in a hurry

Does this mean in a few years we may see the latest overpriced, must have, gizmo on the market? Thanks to Bob R and his many posts and replies on this topic I have confidently left the filter out of my pack for most of my Sierra adventures. I suggest everyone heed his wisdom and do the same.

I've done that for a few years now, too. Finally got to experience giardia this summer. Probably will pack some chlorine bleach in the future, but still leave the filter behind.

Fishmonger wrote:
> me thinks that stuff would plug up in a hurry

The article says the silver in the filter appears to help prevent growing bacteria from fouling the filter.

> Finally got to experience giardia this summer.

What happened? Where were you? And what source do you suspect?

Take a Steripen. Small, light, fast, no bad taste.

well, dunno. Probably in Yosemite, given the incubation time these buggers need. Sunrise Creek maybe.

As to "what happened" because of the bug - well, I still owe some clinic in California $260 because my insurance company feels that this was a non-participating provider and not something I should have been seeking emergency care for (gotta love the US 3-rd world health care system... I don't even want to get into the details of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle TV blasting for hours in the waiting room - that punishment alone will have me carry a water filter in the future, I think)

Just shows that it can happen, I went about 25 days this summer with no filter from East to West and did not get sick.

It was so nice just pulling out my bottle and being done in 10 seconds.