Home > Press > Tough aqua material for water purification: Decontamination of water with a robust and sustainable membrane assembled from 2 synergistically working components
![]() |
Abstract:
Water purification processes usually make use of robust membranes for filtering off contaminants while working at high pressures. Can materials employing water as major component be made strong enough to suit such a demanding application? Israeli scientists now report in the journal Angewandte Chemie that a supramolecular aqua material can be utilized as a sustainable membrane for water purification at high pressures.
Normally, a membrane obtains its toughness from the formation of a polymeric network made of covalent bonds. However, polymeric membranes are difficult to clean and recycle, while easy fabrication, cleaning, and recycling can greatly enhance the sustainability of the membranes. Supramolecular systems in principle fulfill many of the sustainability requirements, but they lack robustness. The Rybtchinski group from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and collaborators from BASF have combined two membrane components, working in synergy, to form a hybrid membrane that is robust and can be easily fabricated and disassembled, thus being highly advantageous for the challenges presented by industrial water purification.
Nafion, which is a sulfonate polyelectrolyte with Teflon-like fluorocarbon backbone, is known for its ion-exchange properties. A noncovalent PP2b network can be used to build water-based membranes with filtering properties but lacking the robustness required from "aqua materials" also known as "aqua plastics" (bioinspired self-assembled materials that employ water as major component, but can be as strong as conventional plastics). Rybtchinski and his colleagues combined both materials through deposition of colloidal Nafion on PP2b layer and found that the two layers interacted advantageously: "Overall, a hydrogel-like material featuring a 3D Nafion network and strongly densified PP2b layers is formed," they said.
Mechanical compression, hydrophobic forces, and osmotic pressure caused the formation of a dense hybrid membrane structure. The scientists then tested the layered material for the removal of toxic heavy metals and small organic molecules such as dyes and drugs from contaminated water. It was highly effective in both, and the authors explained why: "The Nafion layer acts as membrane having the ion exchange properties, while the densification of PP2b appears to play a role in the size-selective rejection."
Remarkably, the hybrid membrane sustained high pressures and could also be easily disassembled for cleaning and recycling. These favorable properties induced through synergistic self-assembly make such aqua materials good candidates for demanding large-scale industrial applications.
###
About the Author
Dr. Boris Rybtchinski is an Associate Professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry of Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. His group develops self-assembling nanoscale organic systems in aqueous media, aiming to create highly adaptive and robust functional materials.
https://sites.google.com/site/solarenergyutilization/
####
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Mario Mueller
Copyright © Wiley
If you have a comment, please Contact us.Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Related Links |
Related News Press |
News and information
Engineering piezoelectricity and strain sensitivity in CdS to promote piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution May 13th, 2022
New nanomechanical oscillators with record-low loss May 13th, 2022
Small microring array enables large complex-valued matrix multiplication May 13th, 2022
Discoveries
New nanomechanical oscillators with record-low loss May 13th, 2022
Small microring array enables large complex-valued matrix multiplication May 13th, 2022
Announcements
Engineering piezoelectricity and strain sensitivity in CdS to promote piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution May 13th, 2022
New nanomechanical oscillators with record-low loss May 13th, 2022
Small microring array enables large complex-valued matrix multiplication May 13th, 2022
Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters
Lightening up the nanoscale long-wavelength optoelectronics May 13th, 2022
On-Chip Photodetection: Two-dimensional material heterojunctions hetero-integration May 13th, 2022
Engineering piezoelectricity and strain sensitivity in CdS to promote piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution May 13th, 2022
Water
The future of desalination? A fast, efficient, selective membrane for purifying saltwater May 13th, 2022
The deformation of the hydrogel is used to measure the negative pressure of water April 22nd, 2022
![]() |
||
![]() |
||
The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
![]() |
![]() |
||
Premium Products | ||
![]() |
||
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
![]() |
||
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||
![]() |