Almost ideal water filter was created from graphene "accordions"

The study and constant work on such a unique material as graphene opens up new possibilities for its practical application in various fields of science and industry.

In another scientific study, scientists proposed a new method for producing folded graphene structures (accordions) with pores that perfectly filter out impurities.

So graphene structures are little by little beginning to be used in practice, including as filters for water. For these purposes, the so-called "stacks" of graphene planes are used, as a result of which a narrow a space with nanopores through which water molecules pass calmly, and all sorts of impurities and pollution are excellent are delayed.

However, in such a design, water passes along a rather winding path, thereby complicating the whole process, and significantly increasing the cost of pumping water through such filters.

New experiments with graphene

The engineering team led by R. Hurt (Brown University, USA) proposed a different arrangement of graphene filters with "vertically oriented" nanopores. And it turned out to be quite simple to do, you just need to fold the carbon sheets like an accordion.

During the experiment, scientists placed graphene layers on a pre-stretched elastic substrate, and then began to smoothly release the tension on the substrate.

In the process of assuming its previous shape, the substrate forced the graphene to crumple and thus form a huge the number of folds, while with sufficient primary tension, such folds were obtained practically vertical.

The structure formed in this way was fixed by the scientists by pouring it with epoxy resin. Next, the scientists carefully cut off the sharp corners of the graphene accordion. Thus, channels of nanoscale diameter perpendicular to the plane of the sheet were opened.

Thus, it was possible to create a membrane with short and rather narrow pores through which only small molecules can pass. Water will pass through such a filter freely, but all kinds of impurities will be retained and filtered out.

Engineers called the resulting structure "vertically oriented graphene membranes" VAGME. Then the following experiment was set up: water vapor, pre-mixed with hexane molecules, was passed through the created filter. In this case, gas molecules were very easily filtered through a graphene filter.

Scientists will continue to work and experiment on graphene to eventually provide a commercial version of the product. Scientists have shared the results of the work already done on the pages of the journal Nature Communications.

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