A 16-year-old girls' high-grade absorbent polymer "SAP" made from oranges such as oranges and avocados could eliminate water shortages in Africa

In South Africa school girls succeeded in developing a synthetic polymer (water-absorbing hydrogel) that can hold water for a long time using materials that are almost inexpensive, to help African farmers suffering from drought. This girls' high school student has decided to take Google's backup for practical use of polymers.

Schoolgirl's invention solves drought crisis? - CNN.com
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/09/africa/orange-drought-kiara-nirghin/

Successfully developing the synthetic polymer "super absorbent polymer (SAP)" is Ms. Chiara Nilgin, a 16-year-old who attends high school in Johannesburg, South Africa.


You can understand what kind of polymer the SAP developed by Mr. Nirgin has in one shot by looking at the following movie.

Google Science Fair 2016 - YouTube


Material that powdered material in glass enters SAP. Major raw materials are expected to be discarded as mandarin orange and avocado skins, and the cost of raw materials is almost zero.


Pouring water into the glass ... ....


The polymer material began to dissolve in water.


Stir with a spoon and wait for a while ......


It became a gel like this. As SAP can hold 100 times the weight of water, it is expected that it will be able to reduce the amount of water used by keeping water in SAP and it will be a drought countermeasure.


In Africa, the damage caused by drought on crops is enormous and support money has been sent from all over the world, but there is no fundamental solution and drought control is a chronic serious matter.


Mr. Nirgin's proposed SAP seems likely to be put to practical use because it is discarded either from mandarin orbits or avocado skins and can be manufactured from materials that do not cause harm to nature. Dr. Jin Wen Zhang, a researcher at Washington State University for water absorbent hydrogels, says, "I believe that SAP will work well, we will definitely investigate SAPs that can be mass produced at low cost using waste I am worth it. "I highly appreciate Nirgin's research.

The idea of ​​this SAP,Google Science FairWe have been awarded the Community Impact Award in the future, and from now on, Mentor will be attached to Mr. Nirgin from Google from SAP to support research and development of SAP, further research on SAP will be advanced.


Mr. Nirgin is a big problem throughout Africa After realizing the drought countermeasure in SAP, after dying the skin of an animal that is in danger of extinction by overfishing with a special dye to eliminate the commercial value, Hunter There seems to be an idea to reduce risks aimed at by, and it seems to be expected that it will greatly fly as a scientist.