Plasma-treated nano filters help purify world water supply

An international team of researchers – led by Associate Professor Hui Ying Yang from Singapore University of Technology and Design – showed that water purification membranes enhanced by plasma-treated carbon nanotubes are ideal for removing contaminants and brine from water.

This work paves the way for the next generation of portable water purification devices, which could provide relief to the 780 million people around the world who face every day without access to a clean water supply.

Some smaller portable devices do already exist. However, because they rely on reverse osmosis and thermal processes, they are able to remove salt ions but are unable to filter out organic contaminants from the briny water found in some river and lake systems.

“For people in remote locations, briny water can sometimes be the only available water source,” he says. “That’s why it’s important to not only be able to remove salts from water, but to also be able to put it through a process of purification.”

“Our study showed that carbon nanotube membranes were able to filter out ions of vastly different sizes – meaning they were able to remove salt, along with other impurities,” he says.

Nature Communications – Carbon nanotube membranes with ultrahigh specific adsorption capacity for water desalination and purification

The other downside of existing portable devices is that they require a continuous power supply to operate their thermal processes. “On the other hand, the new membranes could be operated as a rechargeable device.”

Professor Ostrikov attributes the success of the new membranes to the unique properties of plasma treated carbon nanotubes.

“Firstly, ultralong nanotubes have a very large surface area that is ideal for filtration. Secondly, nanotubes are easy to modify, which allows us to tailor their surface properties through localised nanoscale plasma treatment,” he says.
Now that the researchers have proven the effectiveness of the method, they plan to extend their research to investigate the filtration properties of other nanomaterials. They will begin by looking at graphene, which has similar properties to carbon nanotubes, but could be made considerably denser and stronger.

ABSTRACT

Development of technologies for water desalination and purification is critical to meet the global challenges of insufficient water supply and inadequate sanitation, especially for point-of-use applications. Conventional desalination methods are energy and operationally intensive, whereas adsorption-based techniques are simple and easy to use for point-of-use water purification, yet their capacity to remove salts is limited. Here we report that plasma-modified ultralong carbon nanotubes exhibit ultrahigh specific adsorption capacity for salt (exceeding 400% by weight) that is two orders of magnitude higher than that found in the current state-of-the-art activated carbon-based water treatment systems. We exploit this adsorption capacity in ultralong carbon nanotube-based membranes that can remove salt, as well as organic and metal contaminants. These ultralong carbon nanotube-based membranes may lead to next-generation rechargeable, point-of-use potable water purification appliances with superior desalination, disinfection and filtration properties.

9 pages of supplemental information

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