Novel gel soaks up heavy metal pollution

One of the important properties of an aerogel is that it has a huge surface area available for reaction, which is why they are often used in filters.

To test how well their new aerogel filtered out heavy metals, the researchers soaked 10 milligrams of it in water contaminated with mercury at 645 parts per million. The aerogel removed almost all of the mercury, reducing levels to .04 parts per million.

Because this gel uses the precious metal platinum, it is probably too expensive for large-scale pollution cleanup. But Kanatzidis says he and his colleagues have since created similar aerogels using less expensive metals, which could be more suitable for large-scale use. Pieces of such aerogels could then be dropped into rivers contaminated with heavy metals in order to decontaminate them.