New water desalination method works 2,400 times faster than known analogues

The cross section of a strand of hair is approximately one millionth of a meter in diameter. And even this tiny one

the surface is huge compared to the pores in a new type of filter developed by engineers at the University of Tokyo in Japan.

In an article published in a peer-reviewedjournal Science, researchers presented a new method for desalinating water using fluorine rings just one to two nanometers in diameter. The chemical's hydrophobic properties contributed to its ability to filter salt molecules with impressive speed and efficiency.

The key innovation in the new technologywater desalination is fluorine, a hydrophobic element. At the nanoscopic level, it repels negatively charged ions, including sodium chloride (NaCl). 

The researchers created the membranes by layering each other.each other several fluorescent rings to form tubes. Then they were placed side by side in a water-impermeable layer of lipid molecules. The result is something resembling a cell membrane. As a result, water molecules can pass through, but salts cannot.

It turned out that the sample worked for aboutseveral thousand times faster than typical industrial devices and about 2,400 times faster than experimental carbon nanotube desalination devices.

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