Synthetic Coral Could Remove Toxins from the Ocean

Jul-26-15 A new synthetic coral able to remove heavy metal pollutants from the ocean could open the door to new ways of dealing with toxins in the ocean water.

The coral-like structure relies on aluminum oxide to remove pollutants, such as mercury, from the water. Aluminum oxide has been used before to remove ocean toxins, but the previous iterations tended to clump, reducing both surface area and efficiency.

Created by a team from Anhui Jianzhu University in China, the new aluminum oxide structure is made up of porous nanoplates that curl independently to create a coral-like structure. In tests, the structure was able to remove more than double the amount of mercury from the water than had been possible with previous aluminum oxide nanoparticle devices. Says Dr. Xianbiao Wang: "We hope our work provides inspiration for more research into the development of materials that mimic biological organisms."

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