Russian scientists, in collaboration with colleagues from France, have developed a new material for ultra-efficient removal of toxic copper ions from water.

According to the developers, it outperforms activated carbon by 14 times and can remove 99 percent of copper from water within two hours, the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) press service told the Sputnik.

The effective alternative to activated carbon can be produced at room temperature from silica and glue in a single step, and the material requires no additional treatment. The production of the new sorbent uses minimal resources: water, electricity, and chemicals, the RSF added.

Currently, copper removal relies on membrane filtration or ion-exchange resins, which can be insufficient and require expensive reagents and complex equipment. 

When the new material is used in copper-containing water, the metal precipitates on the sorbent surface as insoluble compounds, which remain firmly fixed to the carrier.

Kamil Rabadanov, senior researcher at the Analytical Center for Shared Use of the Daghestan Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that in the future, scientists plan to adapt the sorbent for the extraction of other metals — mercury, cadmium, and lead — as well as radioactive atoms.