An article published on the July 3 issue of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology website stated that researchers at the university have developed a new method of seawater desalination with the help of graphene. This method is simple and effective, and the cost is far lower than other existing technologies, allowing people to choose one more option for seawater desalination. The latest issue of the paper "Nano Express" magazine.
In many parts of the world, the supply of freshwater is declining. With the growth of population, this problem will continue to be severe. Therefore, many people have turned their attention to seawater, which is almost unlimited supply, and various desalination technologies have also emerged. However, so far, they have been too expensive to be widely used and cost-effectively promoted.
Jeffrey Grossman, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Materials Science and Engineering who led the project, said that many people are concerned about desalination technology and have made a lot of achievements, but the study of desalination from a materials science perspective is not a lot of.
In the new study, Grossman and graduate student David Cohen Danucci, by accurately controlling the pore size of porous graphene and adding other materials to it, changed the properties of the graphene pore edge, making it possible to repel or attract water molecules. . This special graphene, like a sieve, quickly filters out the salt in the seawater, leaving only water molecules. The key to the new process is the very precise control of the size of the graphene pores. According to the researchers, the ideal size is 1 nanometer, which cannot be too large or too small. If it is too large, the salt will pass through the screen together with the water molecules and will not be able to filter; if it is too small, the water molecules cannot pass through these. Small hole. Computer simulations have shown that this graphene screen is very good in performance and can quickly complete the desalination process.
Cohn Danucci said that many research groups had previously developed similar graphene screens, but they differ greatly in size and use. For example, porous graphene is used to filter DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) or separate different types of gases and the like. However, in these studies, the accuracy of the graphene holes is relatively low, and the technology is relatively simple and cannot be applied to seawater desalination.
At present, the most commonly used seawater desalination is reverse osmosis technology. Its working principle is to use a special film to filter the salt in seawater. However, because the pores in these films are extremely dense (1000 times denser than the porous graphene used in new technology), they require very great pressure to force seawater through the membrane. Therefore, it is necessary to consume a lot of energy while desalinating the seawater. . In contrast, at the same pressure, the new technology can be hundreds of times faster in filtration than reverse osmosis membrane technology, or it can save more energy at the same filtration rate.
The researchers said that they are currently using the computer for the final simulation and debugging of the entire process to determine the best parameters. The first prototypes of graphene filters using this technology will be available this summer.
Grossman said that because graphene's raw materials are cheap and easy to obtain, this technology has a natural advantage in terms of cost. In addition, it is the hardest known material and is more durable than the currently used reverse osmosis membranes.
Joshua Schnell, an associate professor of chemistry at Harvard University, said that similar porous graphene structures were previously developed, but no one has combined it with seawater desalination. New technologies provide a new alternative for seawater desalination. (Wang Xiaolong)
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