Young Scholar TechTalk – Blowing Bubbles in Membranes for More Efficient Freshwater Production

Global scarcity and contamination of freshwater pose a significant threat to sustainable development. To address this crisis, reverse osmosis (RO) technology has been playing a pivotal role in desalination and water reuse for freshwater production. The effectiveness of the RO membrane filtration is highly dependent on its surface functional rejection layer. My research focuses on shaping this rejection layer to be a voids-bearing structure, resembling blowing bubbles within the layer. This technique will result in a thinner rejection layer with a larger surface area, favoring water transport. On this basis, shaping branch bubbles to resemble a tree or coral can potentially achieve an exponential increase in water filtration efficiency, resulting in faster production of freshwater with significantly lower energy consumption.