| Title | Graphene Oxide Sieves Seawater Into Drinking Water | |
| Date | Monday April 03 2017, @11:32PM | |
| Author | Fnord666 | |
| Topic | ||
| from the Water-water-everwhere dept. | ||
The BBC reports:
A UK-based team of researchers has created a graphene-based sieve capable of removing salt from seawater.
Manufacturing graphene-based barriers on an industrial scale has been a problem in the past, but this new sieve promises to be more affordable, yet still effective in filtering salts, and will now be tested against existing desalination membranes.
Reporting their results in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, scientists from the University of Manchester, led by Dr Rahul Nair, shows how they solved some of the challenges by using a chemical derivative called graphene oxide.
Isolated and characterised by a University of Manchester-led team in 2004, graphene comprises a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. Its unusual properties, such as extraordinary tensile strength and electrical conductivity, have earmarked it as one of the most promising materials for future applications.
[...] Previous work had shown that graphene oxide membranes became slightly swollen when immersed in water, allowing smaller salts to flow through the pores along with water molecules.
Now, Dr Nair and colleagues demonstrated that placing walls made of epoxy resin (a substance used in coatings and glues) on either side of the graphene oxide membrane was sufficient to stop the expansion.
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