Mini Magnetic Muck Managers

The development of magnetic nanoparticles for the removal of pharmaceutical contaminants in drinking water

Introduction

Water is an extremely precious commodity.              However, it was discovered that pharmaceuticals have been contaminating our drinking water. These pharmaceuticals include drugs such as ibuprofen, neproxin, Prozac and gemfibrozil. The effect of these trace amounts of pharmaceuticals on human health are currently unknown, although they have been known to disrupt the reproductive abilities of amphibians and fish.  The accumulative as well as synergistic effect of these drugs in our bodies could potentially have severe repercussions on human health. Current water techniques are either unable to remove these contaminants, or are too expensive to be implemented on an industrial scale. Thus, we have come up with an effective, cost efficient solution: functional magnetic nanoparticles. This project is designed to validate the possibility of using magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to remove trace amounts of pharmaceuticals from drinking water.

             Functional magnetic nanoparticles have a large surface area to volume ratio so that they can bind to toxic organic molecules in the most efficient manner. They can be recovered by using a magnetic field generated by a high gravity magnetic separator. The toxic molecules can then be removed from the nanoparticles and the MNPs can be recycled. These nanoparticles can be superior to other water filtration techniques, especially in removing trace amounts of organic contaminants.