Carbon nanotube membranes for water purification promise bright future in water desalination

Carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes are considered to offer a bright future for next-generation water desalination. The tip-functionalised nonpolar CNT interior facilitates water influx and rejects salts, allowing these robust, antibacterial and antifouling CNT membranes to remove most pollutants.

Water pollutants have huge impacts on entire living systems including terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial flora and fauna. In addition to conventional priorities, and newly emerging micro- and nanopollutants, increasing global warming and climate change pose major threats to the availability of fresh water.

Global warming and climate change are steadily increasing the salinity of both land and sea water, reducing the availability of existing fresh water for households, agriculture, and industry. This has made it urgent to invent an appropriate water treatment technology that not only removes macro-, micro- and nanopollutants, but also desalinates water to a significant extent.

The tip-functionalised nonpolar interior of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) provides a strong invitation to polar water molecules while rejecting salts and pollutants. Low energy consumption, and antifouling and self-cleaning functions have made CNT membranes extraordinary over conventional ones.

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Taxonomy

• Membranes
• Filtration