Drinking water from the sea. A transformation made possible thanks to graphene, according to new research conducted at the University of Manchester. Other previous studies had shown the potential of this material
Drinking water from sea. A transformation made possible thanks to graphene, according to new research conducted at the University of Manchester. Other previous studies had shown the potential of this material.
But the British scientists managed to create a kind of sieve, made of graphene oxide, capable of filtering the water. The research was published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
A technique that could have very important implications especially for tackle the problem of access to drinking water.
Graphene oxide membranes have already shown that they can filter out tiny nanoparticles, organic molecules and even large salts. Until now, however, they could not be used for sieving the common salts used by desalination technologies.
Previous research conducted by the University of Manchester had found that when immersed in water, graphene oxide swells slightly allowing small salts to flow away with the water, but larger ions or molecules they got stuck.
The team further developed these graphene membranes and identified them a strategy to avoid swelling of the membrane in the presence of water. The size of the pores in the membrane can be precisely controlled in such a way that filter the common salts present in sea water and make the latter suitable for human consumption.
“The making of membrane scalable with uniform pore sizes down to the atomic scale is a significant step forward and will open up new possibilities for improving the efficiency of desalination technology " he said the prof. Rahul Nair Raveendran.
Unfortunately, the changes climate they are continuing to reduce supplies of clean water in some areas of the world. Some rich countries are investing in desalination technologies, such as California, which has been hit by drought but also by severe flooding.
To deepen the topic see also:
HOW TO PRODUCE GRAPHENE FROM FOOD WASTE
HOW TO REMEDIATE DANGEROUS WASTE WATER THANKS TO GRAPHENE
The hope is that solutions like this can be easily reproduced all over the world, solving one of the problems that still kills today: the lack of clean water.
Francesca Mancuso
