Even though water makes up the majority of the Earth’s surface, we all know that not all of it is consumable. Saltwater processing is both costly and time-consuming, and it is not as scalable as one might anticipate.
However, researchers from the University of Tokyo’s Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology have devised a revolutionary approach to convert seawater into drinkable water using fluorine-based nanostructures. They built test filtration membranes by chemically manufacturing nanoscopic fluorine rings and implanting them in an otherwise impenetrable lipid layer, finally developing a structure comparable to that of organic molecules present in cell walls.
The researchers evaluated many materials with different nanoring diameters ranging from one to two nanometres. They next looked for chlorine ions on both sides of the barrier, which are the second most common component of salt after sodium.
The smaller test sample proved to be more effective in rejecting incoming salt molecules. Researchers also mentioned that larger ones outperformed alternative desalination techniques, such as carbon nanotube filters.
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The filters not just performed as they were expected to, but also were a thousand times better than the current industrial devices. Carbon nanotube desalination systems were 2,400 times slower than fluorine desalination devices. They were able to do so while using less energy.
However, the researchers did point out, that synthesising the material used in the sample was an energy-intensive procedure, and they are continuing to work on the technology to reduce the device’s total running expenses.
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