A team of researchers from the University of Tennessee, the University of Texas at Austin, Penn State University, Fudan University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has discovered a new method of water filtration that could have implications for a variety of technologies, such as desalination, breathable and protective fabrics, and carbon capture in gas separations.
The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, was inspired by the way plant and animal cells preferentially transport water across cellular boundaries and reject other small molecules such as dissolved salts.