Nano-Sponges

One of the most exciting benefits of nanotech is how it might help to clean up the environment or prevent further contamination. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory recently announced that it has developed applications for self-assembled monolayers in the detoxification and filtration of certain fluids. The material contains holes that are 50 billionts of a meter wide. Sponges work by essentially being empty in volume while having significant internal surface area to trap particles. You may have heard that if you unravelled your DNA it would stretch over six feet long, despite only being 50 trillionths of an inch wide. Similarly, if you were measure the internal surface area of one gram of this nano-sponge material, it would be a whopping 6,400 to 11,000 square feet. These materials could be used to remove mercury from the gas emissions of coal plants, among other applications. Source: United Press International