Micropollutants in water zapped by pulsed light

According to the team at KAUST, this photodegradation process is known to be feasible but limited by the long treatment times it required. Luca Fortunato, Thomas Anthopoulos and colleagues have demonstrated that this photodegradation treatment can be accelerated with high-intensity light pulses generated from a xenon flash lamp.

“An interesting aspect of this work is that we combined the expertise and technologies of two different fields,” said Fortunato. He added that the collaboration between two different research departments - KAUST's Solar Centre and Water Desalination and Reuse Centre - allowed the team to adopt a pulsed light system that was previously used to process semiconductor materials for transistors and solar cells.

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Organic micropollutants (OMPs), which are known as emerging contaminants, include a long list of pharmaceuticals, hormones, compounds in personal care products and industrial chemical additives. They are released from multiple locations, are highly persistent in water and can have toxic effects on human health, even at very low concentrations.