MXene-based membranes for water-treatments

Seawater desalination presents a tremendous opportunity to utilize abundant water resources as approximately 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by the ocean. A recent advancement in the field involves an innovative approach that integrates reverse osmosis (RO) with feed heating through membrane distillation (MD), creating a hybrid thermal–membrane process to vaporize hot saline water and transport it through the pores of the hydrophobic membrane. However, this hybrid process still faces practical limitations, primarily due to the necessity of introducing an external heater, resulting in increased energy loss and thermal inefficiency. In this talk, I introduce a novel strategy to overcome these limitations by incorporating surface heating MD systems with MXene-based membranes. Specifically, MXene, known for their excellent electroconductivity, makes it an efficient material for Joule-heating. Additionally, surface-modified MXene exhibited remarkable oxidation stability and corrosion resistance. Ultimately, our MXene-based membrane demonstrated superior desalinating performance, achieving a high permeate flux and an outstanding heat utilization efficiency, all while maintaining excellent material stability.