Can a Vortex Effectively Purify Water by Utilizing Gravity?

[watersplit]

TL;DR

Purify water with vortex / law of gravity - good or bad?

What do you think of purifying water by using a vortex / law of gravity?

Here is what I am thinking:
1. Build a funnel-like jar, clog it on the bottom and fill the jar with water. Now wait for several hours.
2. Unclog the bottom, wait for a few seconds (depending on the size of the jar) and then clog it again.

It is my belief that heavier particles than water will fall to the bottom. And if you also unclog the bottom then a vortex will be created which will suck the impurities down even faster. What impurities will be left? The ones that weights less than water, which could either be boiled off or trapped in a filter. Again, it's only what I think, I am not an expert.

What do you think, is this a good purifying technique?

 

[DrJohn]

Try using a filter funnel and filter paper. More effective, existing technology, tried and tested for a few hundred years, much faster than what you are suggesting.

Basically, you are describing letting heavier solid particles, such as bits of mud, settle and hoping to wash them away. Normally when this is used, we decant the liquid off the top of the settled sediment. If we want to wait a few hours, rather than filter it.

Now if you are thinking of separating something that is dissolved in the water, say sodium chloride or ethanol or some soluble contaminant, you are on a loser. It will not work. It will not make purer water. Dissolved substances do not settle to the bottom of a liquid.

 

[Borek]

In short: define "purify". For some uses removing just solid particles will be OK, for other uses things that are left dissolved are much worse.