An Auburn University chemistry professor’s research is leading to safer drinking water in India through advanced, longer-lasting water filters. Professor Dave Worley’s N-halamine technology is the basis for the in-home filters that HaloSource Inc. is introducing today in Bombay, India. The company, established in 1998 on the potential of Worley’s discoveries, pays royalties to the university through a technology transfer agreement.

The filters contain polystyrene beads that hold oxidative chlorine or bromine atoms for long periods of time and that can be easily refurbished – the results of Worley’s N-halamine chemistry. He has received 30 patents in the course of discovering this process that binds the atoms to the surface of various materials. Worley, an Auburn faculty member for 33 years, won the university’s Creative Research and Scholarship Award last fall for his development of the technology. MORE