During a recent research, scientists might have a breakthrough in their hands by producing clean water at a lower cost. This could lead to solving a complex problem that has baffled scientists for decades, until now.
Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and Penn State in partnership with DuPont Water Solutions solved an important aspect of this mystery, opening the door to reduce costs of clean water production. The researchers determined desalination membranes are inconsistent in density and mass distribution, which can hold back their performance. Uniform density at the nanoscale is the key to increasing how much clean water these membranes can create. The findings were published today in Science.
Desalination membranes remove salt and other chemicals from water, a process critical to the health of society, cleaning billions of gallons of water for agriculture, energy production and drinking. The idea seems simple — push salty water through and clean…