To meet the need for clean water in both developing and developed countries and in rural and urban communities, photothermal membrane water treatment technologies can provide outstanding advantages.  They are inexpensive, convenient, modular, and decentralized ways to clean water, and they can reduce the consumption of conventional energy and the cost of clean water production. For efficient photothermal membrane-based water purification, the light absorption and light-to-heat conversion of the photothermal materials are important. Well-controlled and functionalized nanomaterials can increase the light absorption and photothermal conversion of newly-developed membranes. In this talk, I will introduce our recent work on developing scalable, cost-effective, and highly-efficient photothermal membranes for four water purification applications: photothermally-activated biofouling resistance of reverse osmosis (RO) and ultrafiltration (UF), photothermal solar steam generation (SSG), and photothermal membrane distillation (PMD). We have explored the potential of photothermal materials for water purification, ranging from the most promising and expensive to the most environmentally-abundant, benign, and economical materials. Lastly, I will discuss future directions to facilitate the translation of photothermal membranes from the laboratory to large engineered systems by improving their scalability, stability, and sustainability.<br/>

Photothermal membrane water treatment for two worlds

2019 Fall National Meeting

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