No. 434: Nonwoven fabric that adsorbs metals in liquid faster and more efficiently (February 11, 2012)

Technology

Kurary and FukuiUniversity jointly developed nonwoven fabric that can adsorb metals including rare metals from liquid. Specially processed nonwoven fabric can adsorb metals in liquid between 10 seconds and several minutes. The new product is expected to collect rare metals efficiently from seawater and plant effluent. TeruoHori, a professor of Fukui University, and Kurary developed the new product using Kuraray’s Flexstar that is widely used for bandages and housing materials.

The research group applied the electro beam graft polymerization to Flexstar and successfully enabled it to adsorb specific metal ions in liquid. The new product can adsorb 200 g for every 1,000 g, about 10 times more metals than the existing product. In addition, unlike the existing product that needs several hours to adsorb metals in liquid, it takes only several minutes. Kuraray plans to put the product in practical use with companies at an early date.