Water Purification Using Gold Nanoparticles

Three other mechanical engineering freshmen and I worked on a semester-long research project involving water purification with the solar thermal effect. We were asked to research current water purification technologies that use nanoparticles, investigate the effect of gold nanoparticles on the evaporation rate of water, and create a prototype of a device using these principles that can collect and condense steam into water.

This was a very real introduction to the world of research for us. Over the course of the semester, we conducted a literature review, designed and ran our own experiments, and created a prototype of a device that used nanoparticles to evaporate water, as well as a collector that would capture the resulting steam. We also wrote a paper and delivered a presentation outlining and summarizing our results. Our team won second place among 10 other freshman research groups for our work.

View our final poster below: