Permeation

Developing efficient, selective, and scalable separations for critical materials, including lithium and magnesium, is essential to meeting the increasing demands for clean energy technologies and alleviating challenges with domestic supply chains. Graphene oxide (GO) membranes have shown promise for separating ions from mixed solutions based on size.

The process of reverse osmosis has proven to be the state-of-the-art method for removing salt from seawater and increasing access to clean water. Other applications include wastewater treatment and en

Accurate, continuous monitoring of nitrogen dioxide and other gases in humid environments is now possible, thanks to a new water-resistant gas sensor developed by Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, the James L. Henderson Jr. Memorial Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, and his team.

Water scarcity is a growing problem around the world. Desalination of seawater is an established method to produce drinkable water but comes with huge energy costs. For the first time, researchers use fluorine-based nanostructures to successfully filter salt from water. Compared to current desalination methods, these fluorous nanochannels work faster, require less pressure and less energy, and are a more effective…

Industrial processes for chemical separation, including natural gas purification and the production of oxygen and nitrogen for medical or industrial uses, are responsible for about 15 percent of energy use worldwide. Researchers at MIT and Stanford developed a membrane to carry out separation processes with roughly 1/10 the energy use and emissions.

We compare merino, merino blends, alpaca, and polyester fabrics as part of a framework to help hikers choose the best base layer.

A research group led by Prof. Wan Yinhua from the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a novel antifouling nanofiltration membrane for various types of industrial liquid separation. The new membrane applies new knowledge about the role of pore size distribution in filtration.

Researchers have used molecular modelling methods to investigate the movement of nano-sized plastics in membrane structures. The results indicate that for some microplastics, passive transport through the cell membrane may be a significant gateway into the cell.

The design and development of high-performance materials are crucial for efficient ammonia capture. Generally, these materials are characterized by abundant ammonia adsorption sites and rapid ammonia transport channels, enabling the effective capture and release of ammonia molecules.

In many chemical-related industries, such as pharmaceuticals, oil refineries, and food and beverage factories, separating organic liquid mixtures is an essential step. A staple method to achieve this is distillation, which involves heating a mixture to a specific temperature so that only one of its components vaporizes.

For decades, the fields of physics and chemistry have maintained that the atoms and molecules that make up the natural world define the character of solid matter. Salt crystals get their crystalline quality from the ionic bond between sodium and chloride ions, metals like iron or copper get their strength from the metallic bonds between iron or copper atoms, and rubbers get their stretchiness from the flexible…

Membrane separation technology has been widely recognized as a more advantageous technology owing to its high treatment efficiency, low footprint, reliable effluent quality. However, its further sustainable growth has been hampered due to membrane fouling. Although great efforts have been made in the recent decades to improve the antifouling performance via various modification strategies, but the obtained…

Certain electronics that integrate with the human body—a smartwatch that samples your sweat, for instance—work by converting the ion-based signals of biological tissue into the electron-based signals used in transistors. But the materials in these devices are often designed to maximize ion uptake while sacrificing electronic performance.

The Silklab at Tufts University has pioneered the use of silk as a biological solution for many technological challenges. Just like the silk that goes into fine fabric, the silk used in the lab comes from the cocoons of silkworms, but it is processed in a very different way to break it down to its fibrous protein base. Tufts researchers have formed that base into all sorts of useful materials, from faux leather to…

The new 2D polymer, named 2DPA-1, is stronger than steel and as light as plastic; it self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form spaghetti-like 1D chains.

Researchers confirm theory of quantum friction. Water and carbon make a quantum couple: the flow of water on a carbon surface is governed by an unusual phenomenon dubbed quantum friction. A recent study provides experimental proof of this phenomenon – previously predicted through theoretical res

The process of reverse osmosis has proven to be the state-of-the-art method for removing salt from seawater and increasing access to clean water. Other applications include wastewater treatment and energy production.

Membrane separation technology has become one of the most effective methods for water treatment, owing to its advantages of high separation efficiency, convenient operation and low-energy consumption. The membranes prepared from graphene oxide (GO) have received extensive attention for their high water permeability which is attributable to rapid water transport in the atomically smooth sp2 regions (non-oxidized…

MIT researchers developed a chemistry-based strategy to create organic iono-electronic polymers that "learn" and could improve electronic devices that interface directly with the human body.

In research that could jumpstart work on technologies including fuel cells, key to storing solar and wind energy, MIT researchers have found a relatively simple way to increase the lifetimes of these devices: changing the "pH" of the system.