New developments and research are currently being carried out to study one of the possible applications of a new two-dimensional material (one carbon atom thick) called graphene: water filtration.
For this application of the material, it is necessary to achieve a stacking of graphene sheets perpendicular to the direction of water flow. So far, it has been possible to make the new material a filtering element in water filtration by “crumpling” the stacking of its sheets. So, only small molecules such as water molecules can pass through the grooves created between the graphene sheets, while dirt particles (organic pollutants, some metal ions, etc.) are retained. In other words, with this method, based on the VAGME (Vertically Aligned Graphene Membranes) graphene arrangement, an ultra-efficient selective graphene membrane filter is obtained.
By Pablo Vidal, architect in the Architecture Department of Amusement Logic
