STTR Phase I: Development of a tablet to destroy viruses, bacteria, and protozoa in stored household water

这项小型企业技术转让研究第一阶段项目将解决为全球人口提供安全用水的问题。在高收入国家，通过集中的水处理/分配系统提供高质量的饮用水。对于低收入国家的20 - 30亿人来说，清洁的饮用水并不是保证。他们必须收集和储存家庭用水，通常是在没有消毒剂的开放式容器中。这些不足的后果包括饮用不安全的水，导致与水有关的疾病的发病率和死亡率很高。世界卫生组织（世卫组织）指出，解决这一问题的一个可能办法是分散水处理工作，以便人们在家中用水之前就对水进行处理（例如用水点水处理）。然而，设计使用点水处理技术是一个具有挑战性的问题，要求产品在技术上有效，使用简单，价格低廉，并为社会所接受。该项目将开发一种颠覆性的水处理技术，并将满足这些严格的设计标准。这项技术有可能改善水质，改善人类健康，改善世界各地数百万人的生活质量，同时雇佣美国公民来制造和销售该产品。该项目旨在开发和测试将金属铜和n -卤胺涂层涂在多孔陶瓷片表面的方法，用于低收入国家的家庭水净化。所制成的片剂将有效消毒10-20升储存的家庭用水中的病毒、细菌和原生动物一年（总计超过7000升），每升成本不到0.3美分。铜盐溶液通过高温加热会被还原，形成微观的金属铜团簇。当加入水中时，铜会氧化释放铜离子到溶液中，引起病原体消毒。该组件将与现有技术相结合，从多孔陶瓷片中释放银离子。这些消毒剂的协同作用可能使其获得世界卫生组织的1-3星级认证。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Small Business Technology Transfer Research Phase I project will address the provision of safe water to our global population. In high income nations, high-quality drinking water is provided through centralized water-treatment/distribution systems. For 2-3 billion people in lower income countries, clean drinking water is not a guarantee. They must collect and store household water, often in open containers without disinfectant. The consequences of these deficiencies include the consumption of unsafe water that leads to high rates of morbidity and mortality from water-related diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated that one possible solution to this problem is to decentralize water treatment so that people treat their water right before they consume it in their homes (e.g. point-of-use water treatment). However, designing point-of-use water treatment technologies is a challenging problem that requires the product to be technologically effective, simple to use, inexpensive, and socially acceptable. This project will develop a disruptive technology for point-of-use water treatment and will meet these rigorous design criteria. The technology has the potential to improve water quality, human health, and quality of life for millions of people around the world while employing US citizens for manufacturing and sales of the product.This project seeks to develop and test methods to apply metallic copper and an N-halamine coating to the surface of a porous ceramic tablet for household water purification in lower income countries. The resulting tablet will effectively disinfect viruses, bacteria, and protozoa in 10-20 liters of stored household water for one year (over 7000 liters total) with a cost of less than 0.3 cents per liter. Copper salt solution will be reduced through high-temperature heating to form microscopic clusters of metallic copper. When added to water, the copper will oxidize to release copper ions into solution to cause pathogen disinfection. This component will be combined with an existing technology that releases silver ions from a porous ceramic tablet. The synergistic effects of these disinfectants may enable 1-3-star certification from the World Health Organization.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.