albatros
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Depositing a layer of Cu on perlite
Hi there.
I recently saw that copper have an antimicrobial effect.
I plan tu use it to clean the water from a natural pool, by putting it in some PVC tubing, and pass water in it.
The idea I got is to make a concentrated solution of CuCl2, let the perlite absorb it, dry it, and put it in the oven, to decompose my CuCl2 into Cu
metal.
My first concern is that this reaction is not complete, as CuCl2 decompose around 1000°C to form CuCl, and Cu metal, but if I heat enought, It will
decompose to Cu metal too.
I'm also concerned by the oxydation of the copper freshly made, and plan to use argon or nitrogen to keep oxygen out. Could I also use CO2, wich is
much cheaper for me?
What would be the best way to have only Cu metal at the end?
And what are the hazard to put some CuCl in a natural pool?
I'm open to other plans, because I don't have another idea, thanks
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paulll
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Mood: It's fine. Really.
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I kinda suspect that the oligodynamic effect that you're looking to exploit works rather too slowly to be effective in this application... unless
you're going to pump the water through it in standing batches?
But either way if I was going to do this I think I'd set about getting as much Cu(II)O as possible onto the perlite and then reduce that with
hydrogen. It won't get as deep into the perlite as the chloride soln would, but anything beyond surface-deep isn't going to be in play anyway, I
think?
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Twospoons
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Are you more interested in the chemistry or the water purification? - because if the end result is all you are really interested in, copper wool and
knitted copper mesh are readily available, and would save the effort of trying to deposit metallic copper onto a substrate.
Helicopter: "helico" -> spiral, "pter" -> with wings
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Fulmen
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I would look into silver, it's less likely to leech out in harmful concentrations. And the standard methods for making silver mirror should work on
perlite as well.
We're not banging rocks together here. We know how to put a man back together.
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macckone
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If you live someplace with indoor plumbing, your water is likely flowing through copper pipes and has the maximum copper concentration it will
support.
The OP is talking about water purification.
Please do not add copper compounds to natural bodies of water, it winds up down stream and kills fish.
If it is a private pond with no connection to other bodies of water, copper sulfate will kill everything in it at a sufficient concentration. But
that is not conducive to drinking.
They make silver infused water filters that supposedly kill all bacteria, but they also filter out the larger contaminants first.
Boiling is still the best method unless you are at high altitude.
Here in colorado we have giardia, spores can survive boiling for 5 to 10 minutes at 14K feet.
You need a 1 micron filter to get them out of the water.
At sea level, boiling filtered water for 5 minutes will kill pretty much everything.
However, that will not remove other toxic polutants including toxins emitted by the bacteria.
For that you need a good ion exchange resin for metals and a carbon filter for removing organic contaminants.
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albatros
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Hi, thanks for the responses, but I just want to make the water in the pond better, just to maintain algae and bacteria at the minimum level, because
this water will not move a lot, it's like a natural pool, without chemicals.
I just plan to ave a good water equilibrium, not for drinking, just to store and swim. I should have say that first, but I guess my first idea was not
as good as it seemed.
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unionised
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Copper is a chemical.
So is water.
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SWIM
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If this pond isn't too large maybe you could use a biological filtration system like those used in large fish ponds.
This will help keep the algae down and while it won't sterilize the water it might make for a somewhat more benign bacterial environment.
Biofilters can be made cheaply as they are largely tanks full of inert material that acts as a carrier for nitrogen fixing bacteria, but they do need
cleaning once in a while as they produce sludge.
They function much like the first stage of municipal sewage treatment plants.
There should be plenty of designs and general recommendations for their sizing and construction on websites dedicated to raising Koi carp, and perhaps
also on sites covering fish farming.
I suppose you could use the slightly different principals employed in actual sewage treatment plants instead. These rely more on aeration, but I know
little about the specifics other than that they also produce sludge.
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