"John Schmitt" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 02 Sep 2005 05:29:35 +0100, param wrote:

I have got a question that how do the heavy metals dissolve in the
water on molecular level like what kind of bonding occurs. what are the
ways (not chemically or chemical reaction) that we can separate these
metals from water.

Some metal ions form adducts with water, for example the cuprous ion is
colourless when anhydrous. If memory serves it hooks onto six water
molecules of water and becomes blue.
A great deal depends on the other dissolved substances in the water. Salt
water rots most metals, especially if dissimilar metals are in contact,
setting up an electrochemical cell. Even differential oxygen content can
achieve this. As you have ruled out chemical methods, you really need to
double-distil it.

John Schmitt



The usual cheap way to achieve removal of unwanteds in water in the home is by
a water purifying system, possibly employing Reverse Osmosis as one of the
stages. For some particular problems, there exist specific filters to remove
that problem - e.g. Nitrate filters are commonly used in East Anglia due to the
high levels of fertilisers (nitrates) reaching the tap water which are not easy
to remove by the water company and not essential to remove from most water
supplied (toilet flushing / garden watering etc) There exist a few companies
distributing such systems and I am sure a Google would turn them up.

We have a system installed and its amazing how different the water actually
looks and tastes - vegetables taste more as they should and tea/coffee/whisky
tastes completely different, and all the unknowns are being removed when they
turn up.

Nick