Graphene, the new ‘miracle material’, shows promise for use as a simple water purifier (and for distilling alcohol apparently). If you haven’t come across it before, graphene is a form of carbon and its structure is like a honeycomb.
A story on the BBC website gives an interesting summary of research published in the journal Science. I’d recommend reading the full Science article, but to summarise the summary: an international team of researchers created a membrane out of graphene that has some very unusual properties. The researchers found that, while the thin graphene oxide membrane was able to create a barrier against several gases and liquids, water was able to pass through the membrane with ease.
Sensitive equipment was used to detect whether gases could pass through a metal container sealed with the membrane – they were not, not even helium. However, water was able to permeate the membrane as if the container wasn’t sealed.
The researchers didn’t offer up any specific ideas for the application of this technology in the report; however, one of the researchers, Prof. Geim did say ‘it is hard to imagine that they cannot find some use in the design of filtration, separation or barrier membranes, and for selective removal of water’.
It’ll be interesting to see what does eventually come out of this, but it strikes me there are a lot of possibilities – whether it’s filtering toxic chemicals from water, purifying irrigation water or as an ingenious new food packaging. Any ideas? A way of making exciting new cocktails, perhaps?...
