Water. One of the most important if not the most important factors of life. Our cherished Earth is filled with water, but almost all of the water it has is undrinkable or confined in glaciers. Removing salt from water is a costly, and inefficient way to purify water. Financial Times explains filtration is being transformed by thin sheets of graphene, a carbon-based material invented in 2004 at Manchester University. Rahul Raveendran Nair, the university’s professor of materials physics, says graphene has the potential to deliver vast quantities of clean water via desalination and the removal of pollutants. In the future, you may see graphene wastewater treatment centers.
You may be wondering, what is graphene? According to Financial Times, “Graphene is a one-atom-thick piece of carbon that has many remarkable properties like stretching it to make it harder than steel and even diamond.” It’s the lightest, strongest, thinnest, best heat-and-electricity conducting material ever discovered, and the list does not end there. Graphene is so thin, even salt molecules cannot pass through. Recently, someone even discovered graphene was able to filter even the dye molecules of whiskey, turning the liquid colorless. Anyhow, its property to filter out salt molecules has scientists working to create a larger scale version for more practical applications. But graphene is not only able to filter out salt, it is also able to filter chemical solutes and other compounds like pesticides. Currently, many filters make it impossible to tell if the filters are still working properly. But on the other hand, graphene filters won’t let any liquid through when it comes to the end of their life. In an interview with Financial Times, Joe Lovegrove, a technical manager of Icon Lifesaver (a company that currently makes filters that can remove microbes, bacteria, and viruses) says graphene has the potential to become a the greatest filter of all time. All in all, graphene is a material like none other and will hopefully be used in future wastewater treatment.
Moving on, I will talk about how graphene’s purification system works. Graphen.info explains it well. “Graphene naturally repels water, but when narrow pores are made in it, water is able to permeate through. Graphene sheets (peppered with miniature holes) are becoming a new form of water filtration because they are able to let water molecules pass but block the passage of contaminants and other substances.” Graphene is thin and small and is continuing to contribute to making a lightweight, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly water filters and desalinators. Using this, the possibility of using seawater as a drinking water resource in a fast and relatively simple way is not impossible.
According to graphene.info, “Water is an invaluable resource and the intelligent use and maintenance of water supplies are one of the most important and crucial challenges that stand before mankind.’” I couldn’t have said it better. People are taking water for granted and we must take into consideration that only 0.5% of the water we have is drinkable. New technologies are constantly being sought to lower the cost and footprint of processes that make use of water resources, as fresh water are always in desperate demand. If graphene were to solve this issue by making seawater a reliable drinking source, it would be revolutionary. Not only that, I know that many less-developed countries do not have reliable drinking sources and filters that could be placed in simple bottles could help many people or even save lives. Graphene has always been an interesting topic for me as its unusual properties allow it to be used in many areas. Once I saw this article, curiosity took over. Graphene is a mind-blowing subject and has endless possibilities.
To summarize, graphene is a very thin material that allows water to pass but not contaminants making it very useful in purifying water. Its unusual properties make it a possibility that in the coming years, graphene will become the new purification method.