![]() Model of Silver Chloride crystal, courtesy Wikipedia |
Can Nano-Ag purify chloramine-contaminated water?Nano silver, added to chlorinated water, allows the chlorine to precipitate out as silver chloride, which is largely insoluble in water, unless ammonia is added to the water, as shown here:So this should be no big deal. Who drinks water with ammonia in it, anyway? The question is then, can this method also be used to purify water containing the more
intractible chloramine, which cannot be boiled out, filtered out or
reverse osmosed out, and which kills fish swimming in it? |
But here is a gotcha: chlorine, along with (you guessed it!) ammonia, is precisely what chloramine is made of! We are just starting out on a journey to find a simple, reliable and inexpensive way to purify water contaminated with chloramine. It looks like it will be a tough slog. Only careful measurments of results obtained by different protocols will be able to sort fact from speculation. We will be able to determine Tyndall intensity, conductivity, temperature and chloride concentration, and perhaps other parameters. Here in Cary, North Carolina, our municipal water providor has a policy of nondisclosure of what is added to the tapwater (which smells strongly of chlorine bleach) at the source, so even determining what is in the water is a hurdle facing us. A direct inquiry as to whether the reference to 'chloride' on the town's water website referred to common salt or sodium hypochlorate or chloramine and the concentration of each yielded this stonewall: "Chloride is one of the major inorganic anions that occurs in all natural waters in varying concentrations. We do not add chloride as a treatment to the water. The reason that we measure chloride in the water is because EPA has established a Secondary Maximum Contaminant Limit for this parameter. EPA has set the SMCL at 250mg/L. A SMCL is not based on a threat to public health but on aesthetics only. EPA recommends chloride levels be kept below 250mg/L so the water does not taste salty since some people are sensitive to high salt concentrations." | |
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