Membranes - Page 10

Scientists at The University of Manchester have made a breakthrough in the field of graphene oxide membranes for water desalination. Previous research at The University of Manchester found that when immersed in water, graphene oxide membranes become slightly swollen and smaller salts flow through the membrane along with water, but larger ions or molecules are blocked. Now, the team has devised a strategy to avoid the swelling of the membrane when exposed to water. The pore size in the membrane can be precisely controlled which can sieve common salts out of salty water and make it safe to drink.

When the common salts are dissolved in water, they form a 'shell' of water molecules around the salt molecules. This allows the tiny capillaries of the graphene oxide membranes to block the salt from flowing along with the water. Water molecules are able to pass through the membrane barrier and flow anomalously fast which is ideal for application of these membranes for desalination.

Grafoid, the Canadian graphene R&D, investment and technology company, announced the development of its GPURE Graphene Polymer nano-porous membrane intended for next generation Li-Ion battery applications.

The GPURE graphene polymer membrane (GPM) was developed as a chemically inert, freestanding membrane using graphene composites to test ion selectivity using both monovalent and divalent ions. Ion selectivity is a key requirement for a semi permeable membrane in a Li-ion battery structure. By protecting the sensitive electrode materials from unwanted chemical species GPURE GPM diffuses only energy harvesting monovalent ions such as Li+, Na+ etc.

Grafoid has announced the development of the GPURE Membrane Platform, consisting initially of six next generation GPURE Graphene-Polymer membrane technologies intended for industrial markets.

GPURE Graphene-Polymer membranes include:

• GPURE (A) - A high performing, free-standing membrane developed for water desalination applications
• GPURE (B) - A stable, large area membrane developed for wastewater filtration suitable for very high temperature operating applications
• GPURE (C) - A large area free-standing membrane developed for water filtration pre-treatment and may be suitable for use in gas separation applications and may be used as a lightweight component for automotive and sports equipment applications
• GPURE (D) - A large area membrane that may be used for gas separation and sensing applications
• GPURE (E) - A large area membrane intended for use in gas separation applications
• GPURE (F) - May be applied as a graphene varnish for wood surfaces to protect against moisture, UV light and high temperatures

Nippon Shokubai, a Japan-based global materials provider, has announced its success in mass production tests of graphene oxide-based materials. The production volume attained in the mass production test was reportedly improved dozens of times as much as that attained at laboratory, and Nippon Shokubai will start to provide graphene oxide-based materials as samples for application development.

The graphene oxide-based materials are lamellar carbon compounds with the approximately 1nm thickness and the company expects them to be suitable for various functional materials, such as lubricants, water treatment membranes, and catalysts. Nippon Shokubai stated that it has resolved various problems relating to chemical reactions of the production process and succeeded in the mass production test by utilizing its control technology for stable proceeding of chemical reactions in collaboration with Okayama University which retained academic knowledge about reaction mechanism of graphene oxide.

China-based FiiO Electronics launched new in-ear monitor earphones, the FiiO F3, that make use of a graphene-enhanced diaphragm driver. FiiO says that graphene enabled the development of a thin and flexible driver, which enables the F3 to faithfully reproduce music with a clean, rich, yet transparent high-fidelity sound.

The FiiO F3 is now shipping in China and in the US, you can buy one at Amazon.com now for $24.99. We talked to FiiO and they confirm the graphene membrane and explained that it was not developed by FiiO in-house. You can see a close-up of the graphene driver below.

Ionic Industries is an Australia-based graphene developer that was spun-off from Strategic Energy Resources (SER still holds 20% in Ionic) in 2015. Ionic Developed a proprietary Graphene Oxide production process and is developing GO-based materials and applications.

Simon Savage, Ionic's Managing Director, was kind enough to discuss the company's technology and the status of Ionic's GO applications.

It was recently announced that work on the Smart Filter project, initially declared in October 2015, has begun.

The Smart Filter project - an Innovate UK-funded project led by Haydale and involving The CPI, G2O Water Technologies and Sellafield - aims to develop a low cost self-cleaning coating technology based on functionalized graphene, which once applied to industrial membranes increases their resistance to fouling and enhances ion removal. The technology has already been demonstrated successfully in lab-scale tests.

ORA, a Canada-based early-stage start-up that develops graphene-enhanced audio equipment, has unveiled its graphene oxide-based composite material, dubbed grapheneQ. The material was thus named because of its low density and high stiffness, that reportedly allow for louder drivers that have a lower Q resonance, and has been specially designed for use in acoustic transducers.

Loudspeakers work by vibrating a thin diaphragm. These vibrations then create pressure waves in surrounding air that produce different sounds depending on their frequency. The membrane in any speaker can be thought of as a simple harmonic oscillator with an intrinsic mass and restoring force. The heavier the membrane’s mass, the more inertia and sharper resonance it has because of its high Q. The most common way to reduce resonance and broaden bandwidth is to add damping, but this ultimately reduces the efficiency of the driver.

Directa Plus has launched Directa Textile Solutions (DTS), a new company set up to commercialize graphene-enhanced textile membranes for the growing market of smart textiles. This launch follows the €60,000 (US $64,555) acquisition of a 60% stake in textile membrane company Osmotek by Directa Plus.

Directa Plus has been working closely with Novaresin, a membrane production company with a factory in Italy, to develop graphene-enhanced textile membranes. The agreement stipulates that Directa Plus will supply graphene-based products to Novaresin, which will then produce the graphene-enhanced membranes to commercialize through DTS.

Israeli audio pioneer Waves Audio is going to develop an innovative electrostatic speaker using a nanoscale active membrane based on graphene in collaboration with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

The new speaker will hopefully achieve significant energy savings, and so Waves and the Virginia Polytechnic recieved funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and Israel's Ministry of National Infrastructure. The funding was part of the BIRD Energy program. This was one of five projects that were together received $4 million funding.