Glowing Crystals Detect Contaminated Drinking WaterMotivated by public hazards associated with contaminated sources of drinking water, a group of scientists has successfully developed and tested tiny, glowing crystals that detect and trap heavy-metal toxins like mercury and lead. A team led by researchers at Rutgers University used intense X-rays at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to probe the structure of the crystals and learn how they bind to heavy metals. The crystals, known as luminescent metal-organic frameworks (LMOFs) function like miniature, reusable sensors and traps. Within 30 minutes, one LMOF was found to selectively take up more than 99 percent of mercury from a test mixture of heavy and light metals. Simon Teat, a Berkeley Lab staff scientist, studied individual LMOF crystals, each measuring about 100 microns (millionths of a meter), with X-rays at the lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS). Using diffraction patterns produced as the X-ray light struck the LMOF samples, Teat applied software tools to map their three-dimensional structure with atomic resolution. The researcher discovered a patterned, grid-like 3-D structure containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and zinc atoms that framed large, open channels. http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/1198-ntb/news/news/25983-glowing-crystals-cleanse-contaminated-drinking-water?eid=324985092&bid=1602512