Rice sand turns toxic waste into drinking water

[Cirio]

lestatdark said:

Cirio said:

So what you're saying is that the addition of graphite oxide, you create a neutrally charged structure within the sand that isn't attracted to the toxins of those compounds. Plus adding graphite oxide creates a stiffer structure where there are smaller gaps that allow for much fewer particles to pass through the filter paper (kind of like creating interestial compounds by filling the gaps with carbon).

Indeed. Graphite oxide creates "corridors" of nano-tubes that fills the gaps of the sand-filter, creating a much wider area and much minuscule spaces in which the particles are allowed to pass (in the order of the nm scale). As graphite oxide is chemically inert, the toxins don't react to it, thus avoiding any long time degradation that normal sand filters suffer (such as PH issues, cations losing charge and so on). 

You should help me with my organic chemistry homework once fall quarter starts lol.