This proposed project is designed to examine a relatively new material, graphene oxide nanomaterial's (GO), as a possible solution to desalination and for purifying impaired waters. By impaired waters, it refers to waters that may be contaminated with anthropogenic (made by people) chemicals. Graphene oxide membranes are thought to increase the rate at which water permeates (goes through) the membrane. This means that salt rejection is more controlled by pore size that semi-permeable membranes that are presently used in desalination. Nanomaterials are an extremely active area of research and they hold out the promise of revolutionizing many fields of science and engineering.
The research will:
(1) for the first time experimentally characterize aqueous-phase water transport through GO nanochannels, thereby filling the gap of our knowledge about the use of GO nanomaterials for highly efficient water separation; (2) offer novel routes to the synthesis and surface modification of water separation membranes; and (3) fundamentally elucidate the transport and photocatalytic mechanisms for the removal of targeted water contaminants by GO-enabled membranes.
The proposed strategies for GO-based membrane synthesis and surface modification are facile, highly scalable, and potentially become a standard for the incorporation of GO into various membrane materials. Once these membranes are better understood, they will find widespread applications such as point-of-use water purification, on-site treatment of hydrofracking flowback water, renewable energy production, and drug delivery and artificial organ development.
To help to disseminate that findings of this research the education plan will emphasize
(1) recruiting underrepresented groups to promote greater diversity in the environmental workforce, and (2) participating in public exhibitions to raise environmental awareness among a much wider audience. The adopted active learning pedagogy has the potential to transform engineering sustainability education.
