University of Queensland chemical engineering researchers have developed technology that makes molecules move efficiently through membranes without impacting separation performance.<\/p>\n
Chemical engineer Professor Xiwang Zhang, Director of the UQ Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation and ARC Centre of Excellence for Green Electrochemical Transformation of Carbon Dioxide, said the breakthrough addressed a longstanding challenge in membrane technology.<\/p>\n
“Allowing molecules to move faster while maintaining exceptional separation precision potentially reduces energy consumption in these industrial processes\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndustries need membranes that can process large volumes of materials quickly, while allowing only the desired molecules to pass through.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the faster molecules move through a membrane, the harder it becomes to separate them precisely.<\/p>\n
\u201cOvercoming this trade-off has been one of the biggest challenges in membrane science.\u201d<\/p>\n
To tackle the problem, researchers looked inside the membrane itself, focusing on tiny channels less than one nanometre wide, about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese channels are like \u2018molecular highways\u2019 and are a crucial component of membrane technology yet often present frictional and adhesive barriers,\u201d Professor Zhang said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very difficult to redesign this highway, so we asked a simple question: rather than just changing the size or chemistry of these highways, could we make them dynamic to help molecules move faster?<\/p>\n
\u201cIntroducing self-rotating ammonium ions into the nanochannels could dramatically improve molecular transport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe natural mobility of the ammonia particles helped convert a once-rigid, static channel into a dynamic transport environment promoting improved energy transfer and efficient movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe self-rotating molecules are like a turnstile that help us regulate molecular traffic accurately while keeping molecules moving quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cEssentially we have upgraded the highways so that we get the best of both worlds: speed and selectivity.\u201d<\/p>\n
In ethanol and water separation experiments, researchers successfully demonstrated a tenfold improvement in separation accuracy compared with a standard filtration membrane.<\/p>\n
“Our new membrane increased water transport by approximately 44 per cent, and reduced ethanol by 90 per cent,” Professor Zhang said.<\/p>\n
Professor Zhang said the next step would be to translate the technology into practical applications, including energy-efficient industrial separations, resource recovery, CO2 utilisation, and environmental protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"University of Queensland chemical engineering researchers have developed technology that makes molecules move efficiently through membranes without impacting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46,141],"class_list":["post-664317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}