Copper-coated jute beads can prevent water contamination : IIT

Chennai, June 19 (HS)The researchers of IIT Madras have shown that copper-coated jute beads are highly effective in protecting water and preventing microbial contamination for at least five days, according to a statement from IIT-M.

This was an outcome of a team of researchers who were working aimed at solving the problem of water contamination and water-borne diseases in India, through cost-effective means. The process involves coating cuprous oxide or copper on little beads of jute that float on water.
The research was led by Prof. Dillip Kumar Chand and his research student Mr. Randhir Rai from the Department of Chemistry and Sathyanarayana Gummadi, Department of Biotechnology. The results were published in the reputed peer-reviewed journal ACS Omega.
The IIT Madras team chose jute because of two reasons, the first reason is jute floats on water and second reason is that jute sticks are an agricultural waste product that is affordable and available at low costs.
It is quite common for people across India, to store water in containers for consumption. Such stored water can easily be contaminated due to the transfer of microbes from the air into to the water, even if the container is kept closed.
The traditional water purification method of boiling is economically and environmentally unsustainable. Also water has high chances of getting contaminated post cooling.

Prof. Dillip Kumar Chand said, “The use of copper as a disinfecting material has been well-known in India. However, beyond a certain limit, and it is important that too much copper does not leach into the water.”

Mr Rai said, “To prove the disinfectant properties of the copper coated jute beads, we took four beakers of clean water, added uncoated jute beads to one, jute beads coated with copper to the second, jute beads coated with copper oxide to the third and left the fourth beaker as it was, and studied the microbial content in all the beakers periodically. When the beakers were kept uncovered for twenty-four hours, the one with the copper and copper oxide coated beads did not have any microbial growth while the one without the beads and the one with uncoated jute beads had significant microbial growth. After five days, the microbial contamination in the water with coated beads were far less than in the beaker without the coated beads.”