Atomistic Understanding of Zeolite Nanosheets for Water Desalination
Journal
Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Journal Volume
121
Journal Issue
21
Pages
11273-11280
Date Issued
2017
Author(s)
Abstract
Reverse osmosis constitutes a large portion of currently operating commercial water desalination systems. Employing membranes with large water fluxes while maintaining high salt rejection is of central importance in decreasing the associated energy consumption and costs. The ultrathin-film nature of zeolite nanosheets and their versatile pore structures provides great opportunities in desalination. To push forward the development of zeolite nanosheets for water desalination, nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to systematically study zeolites as RO membranes and establish fundamental structure-performance relationships. We have identified that zeolite nanosheets can achieve a high salt rejection rate close to 100% while allowing nearly 2 orders of magnitude higher water permeability than currently available membranes. Moreover, the effects of the pore density, inclusion of cages, and free energy barrier on water permeability and salt rejection are unraveled, leading to important insights toward the rational design of novel zeolite membranes. ? 2017 American Chemical Society.
Subjects
Desalination
Energy utilization
Free energy
Molecular dynamics
Nanosheets
Reverse osmosis
Ultrathin films
Water filtration
Commercial waters
Energy consumption and cost
Fundamental structures
Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation
Orders of magnitude
Water desalination
Water permeability
Zeolite membrane
Zeolites
SDGs
Type
journal article