Team:Exeter/Applications
From 2012.igem.org
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- | <p>Currently polysaccharides can be found in | + | <p>Currently polysaccharides can be found in wastewater treatment processes. Chitin has been shown to decontaminate water containing plutonium and mercury, whilst chitosan is able to remove arsenic from contaminated drinking water and petroleum from wastewater.</p> |
<p>There is also the potential for polysaccharides to be used in the removal of other heavy metals from wastewater. Imagine if you were able to use polysaccharides to at first detect harmful elements within water, obtain a fast signal to say exactly what was present and then also be able to extract all of the contaminant using a polysaccharide removal system!</p> <br> | <p>There is also the potential for polysaccharides to be used in the removal of other heavy metals from wastewater. Imagine if you were able to use polysaccharides to at first detect harmful elements within water, obtain a fast signal to say exactly what was present and then also be able to extract all of the contaminant using a polysaccharide removal system!</p> <br> | ||
Revision as of 12:06, 24 September 2012
Polysaccharides have a spectacular range of properties. These properties stem from the relationships between the chemical nature of the sugars within the polysaccharide, their arrangement within the polymer and the arrangement of the polymer itself. Polysaccharides appear in every corner of the natural world and have multiple applications ranging from protection to energy storage. Not surprisingly humanity has taken advantage of their diversity and by doing so created a huge variety of uses within the medicinal, material and consumable sectors. In this section we invite you to take a brief look at what could one day be possible if a system to design and build bespoke polysaccharides existed. Alex Clowsley, 2012. |