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Sustainable Environment and Water

  • Broader Impact

The scarcity of freshwater and the increasing need for water supplies are already critical in many arid regions and are becoming increasingly important. The development of better membrane materials and technology for water purification is vital for our future. Computational investigations of these materials will accelerate the discovery of improved membranes and structures.

  • Potential Award/Funding Source

1. DOE - Department of Environment (DE) 

2. NSF - Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environment and Transport Systems (CBET)

  • Project 1: Transport Mechanism in Graphite Oxide Membrane in Aqueous Solutions 

[1]. Zheng Sunxiang*, Qingsong Tu* (Co-first), Monong Wang, Jeffrey J. Urban, and Baoxia Mi. "Correlating Interlayer Spacing and Separation Capability of Graphene Oxide Membranes in Organic Solvents." ACS nano (2020). [PDF]

[2]. Mi Baoxia, Sunxiang Zheng, and Qingsong Tu. "2D Graphene Oxide Channel for Water Transport." Faraday Discussions (2018). [PDF]

[3]. Zheng Sunxiang, Qingsong Tu, Baoxia Mi. "Heterostructure membranes made from stacked two dimensional nanomaterials: Tuning the interlayer-spacing for aqueous phase separation."  THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. Vol. 255. 1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA: AMER CHEMICAL SOC, 2018.

[4]. Zheng Sunxiang, Qingsong Tu, Jeffrey J. Urban, Shaofan Li, and Baoxia Mi. "Swelling of graphene oxide membranes in aqueous solution: characterization of interlayer spacing and insight into water transport mechanisms." ACS nano 11, no. 6 (2017): 6440-6450. [PDF]

  • Project 2: Filtration and Heavy-metal Removal with MoS2 Nanosheets 

[1]. Wang Z.*, Qingsong Tu* (Co-first), Zheng, S., Urban, J. J., Li, S., & Mi, B. (2017). Selective Lead Adsorptive Removal by Two-Dimensional MoS2 Nanosheets and Membranes. Environmental Science & Technology.

[2]. Wang Z.*, Qingsong Tu* (Co-first), Zheng, S., Urban, J. J., Li, S., & Mi, B. (2017). Understanding the Aqueous Stability and Filtration Capability of MoS2 Membranes. Nano letters, 17(12), 7289-7298. [PDF]

  • Project 3: A Theoretical Desalination System with Rotating Carbon Nanotube  

§. Diffusion of H2O in Graphene (left) and Graphene Oxide (right) nanosheets

§. Ion-Water separation by rotational carbon nanotube 

[1]. Tu, Qingsong, et al. "A Molecular Dynamics Study on Rotational Nanofluid and Its Application to Desalination."  Membranes  10.6 (2020): 117. [PDF]

[2]. Qingsong Tu, et al. "A scale-up nanoporous membrane centrifuge for reverse osmosis desalination without fouling."  Technology 6.01 (2018): 36-48. [PDF]

[3]. Qingsong Tu, et al. "Study of the effect of osmotic pressure on the water permeability of carbon-based two-dimensional materials." Computational Materials Science 150 (2018): 9-14. [PDF]

[4]. Li Tiange, Qingsong Tu, and Shaofan Li. "Molecular dynamics modeling of nano-porous centrifuge for reverse osmosis desalination." Desalination (2017). [PDF]

[5]. Qingsong Tu, Qiang Yang, Hualin Wang, and Shaofan Li. "Rotating carbon nanotube membrane filter for water desalination."  Scientific Reports 6 (2016). [PDF]

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