Engineers make material gains to improve desalination process

In a study published in Nature Communications, the Illinois team modelled various thin-film membranes and found that MoS2 showed the greatest efficiency, filtering through up to 70 per cent more water than graphene membranes.

“Even though we have a lot of water on this planet, there is very little that is drinkable,” said study leader Narayana Aluru, a U. of I. professor of mechanical science and engineering. “If we could find a low-cost, efficient way to purify sea water, we would be making good strides in solving the water crisis.

“Finding materials for efficient desalination has been a big issue, and I think this work lays the foundation for next-generation materials. These materials are efficient in terms of energy usage and fouling, which are issues that have plagued desalination technology for a long time,” Aluru said in a statement.

Most available desalination technologies rely on reverse osmosis, a process that yields relatively small amounts of fresh water.