(Feb.9, '15) In Rice University study, treated carbon-60 molecules remove
metals from liquids
Treated buckyballs not only remove valuable but potentially
toxic metal particles from water and other liquids, but also reserve them for
future use, according to scientists at Rice University.
The Rice lab of chemist Andrew Barron has discovered that
carbon-60 fullerenes (aka buckyballs) that have gone through the chemical
process known as hydroxylation aggregate into pearl-like strings as they bind
to and separate metals – some better than others – from solutions. Potential
uses of the process include the environmentally friendly removal of metals from
acid mining drainage fluids, a waste product of the coal industry, as well as
from fluids used for hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas production.