Qi Gong (@qigong.bsky.social)

Breakthrough water filter removes 98% of toxic PFAS forever chemicals Researchers at Flinders University have now developed a promising new approach that could help remove some of the hardest-to-capture forms of these long-lasting pollutants from water. New Method Targets Hard-to-Remove PFAS The team, led by Flinders ARC Research Fellow Dr. Witold Bloch, created specialized materials known as adsorbents that can effectively capture PFAS. Their method is particularly successful at trapping short-chain PFAS, which are notoriously difficult to remove with current water treatment technologies. Their findings, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, highlight the use of a nano-sized molecular cage designed to act as a highly selective 'PFAS trap'. "While some long-chain PFAS can be partially removed using existing water treatment technologies, the capture of short-chain PFAS -- which are more mobile in water -- remains a major unresolved challenge," says project leader Dr. Witold Bloch, from Flinders University's College of Science and Engineering. "We discovered that a nano-sized cage captures short-chain PFAS by forcing them to aggregate favourably inside its cavity. This unusually strong binding mechanism is different from that of traditional adsorbent materials." How the Nano Cage Technology Works To make the system effective, the researchers embedded these molecular cages into mesoporous silica, a material that typically... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260408225951.htm