Check the water quality on your mobile
The importance of having access to clean drinking water cannot be underestimated. Researchers at SDU NanoSYD are the leaders of a project proposal designed to develop an app that can check water quality.
Water is fundamental to humanity. That's the first thing NASA is looking for when they're looking for space. We each consist of over 60 percent water. In short: We must take care of our water. It is so important that "Clean Water and Sanitation" is one of the UN's 17 world goals. According to the WHO, 1.8 billion people drink contaminated water, leading to about 502,000 deaths every year.
At SDU NanoSYD, researchers are developing a lab-on-chip sensor that can check whether your drinking or bathing water is contaminated. The small hand-held electronic device is still in development phase, but the aim is that it reveals whether there are microplastics, viruses, bacteria, antibiotics, pesticides, hormones, pharmaceuticals and heavy metals in the water. The appliance could send records of data that to a cloud-based service, which allows you to instantly check the water quality of an app on your mobile.
- We expect the sensor to be fully developed in a maximum of two years, says associate professor Roana Melina de Oliveira Hansen, who is the project manager.
In this interdisciplinary project proposal, SDU NanoSYD is responsible for the development of sensors, while companies in Denmark and Poland are responsible for data handling and app development. A Spanish group specializing in artificial intelligence is also associated with the project, as are researchers in toxicology and environmental risks from as diverse countries as Germany, South Africa and Brazil.