I presume such a filter will also remove all bacteria/etc from the water. So basically, you could grab some water from the Thames, stick it through one of those filters, and drink it. It might lack some minerals, but it won't get you sick.
Regarding bacterial contamination concerns that the posters below discussed, they are likely remedied if the filtration occurs in the gaseous phase of water, though some bacteria can climb substrate walls against gravity so it would be an interesting engineering design challenge.
I'm sure there are engineering constraints that I'm not aware of, like the filtering clogging up and so on, of course. Still, it sounds almost magical with such a perfect filter.
If the preliminary findings with the graphene oxide are hold true, you could stick a cap made of the stuff on a watercone evaporating a bunch of zombie blood and end up with ASTM Type I water to keep you hydrated after the zombie apocalypse.
So I'm wondering if zombie blood is known to have these type of compounds. But more importantly, how common is it for typically impotable water to have these type of compounds?
> how common is it for typically impotable water to have these type of compounds?
My gut feeling is, "not very... right now." The "right now" is pretty much the problem with the speculated water wars (though a bunch of the water in the Gulf of Mexico does contain those compounds).
With landfill's "impermeable" barriers becoming permeated and cholesterol medications, caffeine, birth control, and various other drugs remaining in the treated effluent from waste water facilities coupled with humanity's generally reckless disregard for consequences to its actions there's a significantly non-zero chance that fresh, clean potable water will become scarce in multiple developed locations worldwide.
On the other hand, it could very well be that as our understanding of bio-remediation increases and our utilization of passive and active purification techniques and/or technologies increases we'll keep from having that be a problem. Potentially, we'll even stop actively polluting our water supplies with industrial, agricultural and residential wastes to "save a buck."
Anyway, the watercone is great. They've tackled usability issues present in other solar distillation devices and for areas with access to water with high salinity, or biologically contaminated water (though, there is risk of cross-contamination when harvesting your purified water). It's just that solar stills aren't always a replacement for filters.
Some hydrocarbons might also fit the description.