The new invention using graphene creates clean water from polluted seawater in a simple step

There are still 2.1 billion people in the world still without clean water.

Using a special type of graphene called Graphair, Australian scientists have created a filter that converts contaminated seawater into potable water with a simple process. This technology can be used to provide water shortage areas around the world.

Research author Dr. Dong Han Seo said: " Nearly a third of the world's population, about 2.1 billion people, do not have clean water to drink. Therefore, millions of people, mostly children , died of diseases related to lack of clean water. '

That is the motivation for the research team to find a good filter for cleaning water. Graphair can replace complicated, time-consuming processes.

Dr. Dong Han Seo is holding a glass of clean water that has been filtered from Sydney's water.

The Graphair is a form of graphene made from soybean oil developed by researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

Graphene is a layer of carbon atoms arranged into a honeycomb-shaped network. Graphene is considered a metamaterial (super light and super durable), but the production cost is relatively high.

Graphair is cheaper and easier to produce than traditional graphene, but retains the good properties of graphene. One of those characteristics is hydrophobicity. Taking advantage of this property, the researchers developed a graphene membrane with extremely small nano channels, which allowed water to pass through, but prevented pollutants that were larger molecules. Later, the team put the Graphair membrane into a commercial water filter to perform tests.

A piece of Graphair on the researcher's hands.

Test results show that the water filtration rate of the filter is halved when the Graphair membrane is not available. In this case, the pollutant molecules clung to the filter holes and prevented water from flowing through them.

If the Graphair is added to the filter, 99% of the pollutants are removed. Water filtration speed is faster than conventional filters and can operate even if pollutant molecules adhere to the filter hole.

This means that we will not have to regularly clean filters using the Graphair.

An earlier study also showed that filters using graphene could let water molecules pass through but not for salt molecules to pass through.

Dr. Seo shared: "This technology can create clean water, with just one step. All that's needed is heat, graphene, a membrane filter and a water pump. We hope to start testing. field experiments next year ".