Water permeability of nanoporous graphene at realistic pressures for reverse osmosis desalination
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Grossman_Water permeability.pdf
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Author(s) •
Cohen-Tanugi, David
Grossman, Jeffrey C.
Date Issued
August 2014
Journal
The Journal of Chemical Physics
Publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Citation
Cohen-Tanugi, David, and Jeffrey C. Grossman. “Water Permeability of Nanoporous Graphene at Realistic Pressures for Reverse Osmosis Desalination.” The Journal of Chemical Physics 141, no. 7 (August 21, 2014): 074704. © 2014 AIP Publishing LLC
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Nanoporous graphene (NPG) shows tremendous promise as an ultra-permeable membrane for water desalination thanks to its atomic thickness and precise sieving properties. However, a significant gap exists in the literature between the ideal conditions assumed for NPG desalination and the physical environment inherent to reverse osmosis (RO) systems. In particular, the water permeability of NPG has been calculated previously based on very high pressures (1000–2000 bars). Does NPG maintain its ultrahigh water permeability under real-world RO pressures (<100 bars)? Here, we answer this question by drawing results from molecular dynamics simulations. Our results indicate that NPG maintains its ultrahigh permeability even at low pressures, allowing a permeate water flux of 6.0 l/h-bar per pore, or equivalently 1041 ± 20 l/m[superscript 2]-h-bar assuming a nanopore density of 1.7 × 10[superscript 13] cm[superscript −2].
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4892638