Researchers at CSIRO have developed a new technique which paves the way for the next generation of portable potable water devices.

Relief from unnecessary illness could come soon for the 780 million people around the world who face each day without access to clean water, with an international team in collaboration with Australian scientists leading the way on improving the basic level of global health.

A team including Dr Zhaojun Han and Professor Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov from CSIRO's world-leading Plasma Nanoscience Laboratories worked on the newly-published study showing that water purification membranes enhanced by plasma-treated carbon nano-tubes are ideal for removing contaminants and brine from water.

Contaminated water would go in one end, and clean drinkable water would come out the other, according to Dr Han. The membranes could be integrated into portable water purification devices the size of a tea pot that would be rechargeable, inexpensive and more effective than many existing filtration methods.

“Small portable purification devices are increasingly recognised as the best way to meet the needs of clean water and sanitation in developing countries and in remote locations, minimising the risk of many serious diseases,” Dr Han says, “the large industrialised purification plants we see in other parts of the world are just not practical – they consume a large amount of energy and have high labour costs, making them very expensive to run.”

The study 'Carbon nano-tube membranes with ultrahigh specific capacity for water desalination and purification' is a collaborative work between Singapore University of Technology and Design, CSIRO, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Sydney, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

It has now been published in the journal Nature Communications.