Focus

Carbon nanostructures for water desalination

The increasing demand for fresh water for drinking and agriculture is one of the grand challenges of our age. Desalination is one of the ways in which fresh water can be obtained and is used in several countries, but it is inefficient and not sustainable. In this web focus we collect some articles about the potential use of carbon nanostructures in better desalination devices.

Content

More carbon and less salt

We take a closer look at recent developments in research on various strategies to use carbon nanostructures for water desalination.

Editorial6 Jun 2017 Nature Nanotechnology
Energy penalty for excess baggage

Permeation experiments and simulations show that physically confined graphene oxide allows water molecules to pass through while hindering hydrated ions
- Ram Devanathan
News & Views3 Apr 2017 Nature Nanotechnology
Carbon nanotubes keep up the heat

Applying high-potential alternating current to a carbon-nanotube–polymer composite film provides a self-heating membrane that enhances desalination performance of high-salinity brines by membrane distillation.
- Chanhee Boo
- Menachem Elimelech
News & Views29 May 2017 Nature Nanotechnology
A steam nanogenerator
- Giacomo Prando
News & Views6 Jun 2017 Nature Nanotechnology
Fundamental transport mechanisms, fabrication and potential applications of nanoporous atomically thin membranes

This Review examines the development of nanoporous atomically thin membranes, focusing on fundamental mechanisms of gas- and liquid-phase transport, membrane fabrication techniques, and advances towards practical applications.
- Luda Wang
- Michael S. H. Boutilier
- Rohit Karnik
Review Article6 Jun 2017 Nature Nanotechnology
Tunable sieving of ions using graphene oxide membranes

Ion permeation and selectivity of graphene oxide membranes with sub-nm channels dramatically alters with the change in interlayer distance due to dehydration effects whereas permeation of water molecules remains largely unaffected.
- Jijo Abraham
- Kalangi S. Vasu
- Rahul R. Nair
Letter3 Apr 2017 Nature Nanotechnology
Frequency-dependent stability of CNT Joule heaters in ionizable media and desalination processes

Electro-oxidation of CNT Joule heaters can be eliminated through the application of sufficiently high a.c. frequencies, which enables their use as self-heating membranes in membrane distillation.
- Alexander V. Dudchenko
- Chuxiao Chen
- David Jassby
Article29 May 2017 Nature Nanotechnology

Carbon nanostructures for water desalination

Content

More carbon and less salt

Energy penalty for excess baggage

Carbon nanotubes keep up the heat

A steam nanogenerator

Fundamental transport mechanisms, fabrication and potential applications of nanoporous atomically thin membranes

Tunable sieving of ions using graphene oxide membranes

Frequency-dependent stability of CNT Joule heaters in ionizable media and desalination processes

Search

Quick links