Boutilier Michael S H, Lee Jongho, Chambers Valerie, Venkatesh Varsha, Karnik Rohit
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2014 Feb 26;9(2):e89934. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089934. eCollection 2014.
Effective point-of-use devices for providing safe drinking water are urgently needed to reduce the global burden of waterborne disease. Here we show that plant xylem from the sapwood of coniferous trees--a readily available, inexpensive, biodegradable, and disposable material--can remove bacteria from water by simple pressure-driven filtration. Approximately 3 cm(3) of sapwood can filter water at the rate of several liters per day, sufficient to meet the clean drinking water needs of one person. The results demonstrate the potential of plant xylem to address the need for pathogen-free drinking water in developing countries and resource-limited settings.
迫切需要有效的终端使用设备来提供安全饮用水，以减轻全球水传播疾病的负担。在此，我们表明，来自针叶树边材的植物木质部——一种容易获得、价格低廉、可生物降解且一次性使用的材料——可以通过简单的压力驱动过滤从水中去除细菌。大约3立方厘米的边材每天可以过滤数升水，足以满足一个人的清洁饮用水需求。这些结果证明了植物木质部在满足发展中国家和资源有限地区对无病原体饮用水需求方面的潜力。
