https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Chlorine is a fundamental input to modern industry, yet most of today's supply still relies on energy-intensive electrolysis. In order to reduce energy consumption, researchers from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) and the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, both affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), have developed an alternative approach to producing chlorine—by harnessing the osmotic energy inherently stored in chloride-rich brines. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-electricity-free-chlorine-production-brines.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 07 Jan 2026 12:17:42 EST news687010621 Sodium-ion batteries may be the answer to the future of sustainable energy storage and could be used to make drinking water out of seawater. Scientists at the University of Surrey have discovered a simple way to boost their performance—by leaving the water inside a key component rather than removing it. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-sodium-ion-battery-breakthrough-power.html Materials Science Mon, 20 Oct 2025 12:10:01 EDT news680178521 Important tasks like water desalination, dehumidification, and nuclear waste processing all involve expensive separation steps. A team from North Carolina State University used PSC's Bridges-2 to develop a computer simulation force field that greatly simplifies the creation of metal-organic frameworks to separate substances. Their proof-of-concept work for their PHAST 2.0 force field holds the promise of less expensive, more efficient separation of waste products from useful chemicals. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-field-simulations-purification-treatment.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 01 Oct 2025 13:30:04 EDT news678543871 A joint study by researchers from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and the University of Texas at Austin sheds new light on the structure of membranes used in water desalination. Published in ACS Nano, the study was selected as the journal's cover article. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-desalination-characterizing-membranes-dry-states.html Nanomaterials Mon, 25 Aug 2025 15:10:01 EDT news675351033 Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, King's College London and the University of Fribourg have developed polymer water channels, similar to commonly used plastics, that can draw salt out of water, inspired by the body's own water filtering system. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-cell-membrane-biology-saltwater-filters.html Polymers Wed, 09 Apr 2025 11:12:03 EDT news663415921 When you drink a nice refreshing glass of water, do you ever think, "Gee, I'm glad that polymeric desalination membrane did its job!" Probably not, but maybe you should. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-accessible-membrane-filter-desalination-effectiveness.html Polymers Wed, 26 Feb 2025 12:50:49 EST news659796643 Würzburg chemists have succeeded in controlling the passage of halide ions by deliberately introducing defects into a two-layer nanographene system. Their results have been published in Nature. The paper shows new perspectives for applications in water filtration or sensor technology. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-graphene-ion-permeability-filtration-sensors.html Nanomaterials Wed, 15 Jan 2025 11:00:05 EST news656067181 Seawater electrolysis has long been seen as a promising pathway for sustainable hydrogen production but has faced significant limitations due to chloride ion (Cl-) corrosion, which can degrade a catalyst's performance. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-scientists-advanced-catalyst-driven-seawater.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 12 Nov 2024 11:00:02 EST news650623321 I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Rodents eating herbal remedies. I watched a truck mistaken for an alien message. All those moments will be lost in time, like the Upper West Side under land subsidence. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-saturday-citations-rumbly-guts-alien.html Other Sat, 09 Mar 2024 08:50:01 EST news629124193 Land subsidence is a geohazard caused by the sudden or gradual settling (years to decades) of the land surface due to the removal of subsurface material. This can be due to a variety of factors, both natural (such as earthquakes, volcanic activity and compaction of fine-grained unconsolidated sediments) and anthropogenic (for example, mining and groundwater abstraction). It poses a major issue in urban zones where it can cause building collapse and damage to infrastructure that may be a hazard to life and a resource management problem. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-billion-people-globally-subsidence.html Earth Sciences Thu, 07 Mar 2024 10:59:42 EST news629031576 Evaporation is a natural process so ubiquitous that most of us take it for granted. In fact, roughly half of the solar energy that reaches the Earth drives evaporative processes. Since 2017, researchers have been working to harness the energy potential of evaporation via the hydrovoltaic (HV) effect, which allows electricity to be harvested when fluid is passed over the charged surface of a nanoscale device. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-nanodevices-energy-evaporating-seawater.html Nanophysics Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:28:55 EST news628950532 In order to survive, organisms must control the pressure inside them, from the single-cell level to tissues and organs. Measuring these pressures in living cells and tissues in physiological conditions is a challenge. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-visualize-osmotic-pressure-tissue.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 03 Nov 2023 12:43:04 EDT news618234182 A team of NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) researchers has developed a new kind of self-cleaning, hybrid membrane that provides a solution that overcomes significant challenges that have, until now, limited desalination technologies. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-self-cleaning-membranes-efficiency-desalination-technologies.html Polymers Wed, 20 Sep 2023 15:46:02 EDT news614443561 The sun and the sea—both abundant and free—are being harnessed in a unique project to create vertical sea farms floating on the ocean that can produce fresh water for drinking and agriculture. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-sea-farms-solution-world-freshwater.html Biotechnology Mon, 11 Sep 2023 13:04:04 EDT news613656241 Separating molecules is critical to producing many essential products. For example, in petroleum refining, the hydrocarbons—chemical compounds composed of hydrogens and carbons—in crude oil are separated into gasoline, diesel and lubricants by sorting them based on their molecular size, shape and weight. In the pharmaceutical industry, the active ingredients in medications are purified by separating drug molecules from the enzymes, solutions and other components used to make them. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-membrane-energy-expenditure-molecules-desalination.html Materials Science Sun, 10 Sep 2023 06:00:01 EDT news613392930 Water scarcity is a basic problem in many regions of the world. The consequences of this are black markets for drinking water, unauthorized water extraction from private wells, and the uncontrolled decline of groundwater supplies. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-illegal-jordan.html Environment Mon, 14 Aug 2023 11:00:01 EDT news611221474 A team led by scientists from the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Department of Biological Sciences in collaboration with the French Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) has successfully synthesized a special protein-mimic that can self-assemble into a pore structure. When incorporated into a lipid membrane, the pores permit selective transport of water across the membrane while rejecting salt (ions). https://phys.org/news/2023-08-scientists-class-artificial-channels-efficient.html Biochemistry Wed, 02 Aug 2023 07:51:18 EDT news610181474 The process of reverse osmosis has proven to be the state-of-the-art method for removing salt from seawater and increasing access to clean water. Other applications include wastewater treatment and energy production. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-upending-decades-long-theory-reverse-osmosis.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 17 Apr 2023 11:25:59 EDT news600949555 Diversification reduces risk. That's the spirit of one key takeaway from a new study led by scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The effective path to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century likely requires a mix of technologies that can pull carbon dioxide from Earth's atmosphere and oceans. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-diverse-approach-key-carbon.html Earth Sciences Thu, 09 Mar 2023 13:28:34 EST news597590910 Ultrathin polymer-based ordered membranes that effectively remove salt from seawater and brine could provide a promising alternative to existing water desalination systems, a KAUST-led team demonstrates. Their research appears in Nature Materials. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-salt-equation.html Polymers Thu, 06 Oct 2022 11:06:03 EDT news584273160 Since ancient times, humans have extracted salts, like table salt, from the ocean. While table salt is the easiest to obtain, seawater is a rich source of different minerals, and researchers are exploring which ones they can pull from the ocean. One such mineral, magnesium, is abundant in the sea and increasingly useful on the land. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-simple-valuable-magnesium-salt-seawater.html Materials Science Fri, 23 Sep 2022 15:48:44 EDT news583166911 A team led by researchers from Imperial College London, investigated how water molecules move in a confined space—in this case through a polyamide (PA) membrane that is used to remove salt from seawater to produce fresh water. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-desalination-efficiently.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 26 May 2022 13:24:43 EDT news572790271 Water scarcity is a growing problem around the world. Desalination of seawater is an established method to produce drinkable water but comes with huge energy costs. For the first time, researchers use fluorine-based nanostructures to successfully filter salt from water. Compared to current desalination methods, these fluorous nanochannels work faster, require less pressure and less energy, and are a more effective filter. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-future-desalination-fast-efficient-membrane.html Nanophysics Thu, 12 May 2022 14:00:01 EDT news571572662 Researchers from Bielefeld, Bochum and Yale have succeeded in producing a layer of two-dimensional (2D) silicon dioxide. This material contains natural pores and can therefore be used like a sieve for molecules and ions. Scientists have been looking for such materials for a long time because they could help desalinate seawater and be used in new types of fuel cells. The team outlines the fabrication process of bilayer silicates in the journal Nano Letters, published online on 19 January 2022. The study was jointly conducted by the teams headed by Dr. Petr Dementyev from Bielefeld University, Professor Anjana Devi from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Professor Eric Altman from Yale University. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-two-dimensional-silicon-dioxide-sieve-molecules.html Nanomaterials Mon, 07 Mar 2022 09:29:02 EST news565867739 Global drinking water scarcity is a severe problem for humans. Water purification consumes a large amount of fossil energy and generates secondary pollution. https://phys.org/news/2021-11-nanocomposite-solar-evaporation-purification.html Nanomaterials Tue, 09 Nov 2021 07:34:48 EST news555665686 Inspiration struck Yi Zheng on a summer visit to a local dairy farm. There were cows and horses and, Zheng noticed, that meant that there was manure everywhere. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-manure-solution-global-crisis.html Materials Science Thu, 21 Oct 2021 07:56:55 EDT news554021812 Portland, Ore., USA: Coastal regions and small ocean islands face significant risks from rising sea levels due to climate change, because waters can flood and inundate low-lying land surfaces. "Climate change has become a more critical issue recently, especially for island countries and island provinces like the Bahamas. They are not only facing a water shortage problem because of the limitations of the islands, but also they are facing a coastal inundation problem due to sea level rise caused by climate change," said Yipeng Zhang, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Texas at El Paso. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-lake-formation-expansion-due-sea-level.html Earth Sciences Tue, 12 Oct 2021 12:31:20 EDT news553260678 Converting seawater into fresh water is important in water-scarce countries. For that process, certain charged particles—known as ions—have to be removed from the water. However, some ions are difficult to remove from water due to their chemical properties. Recent research by scientists from Israel and the Netherlands is helping to improve this ion-removal process. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-troublesome-ions.html Materials Science Tue, 05 Oct 2021 12:36:27 EDT news552656181 Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and their collaborators have developed a new membrane, whose structure was inspired by a protein from algae, for electrodialysis that could be used to provide fresh water for farming and energy production. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-membrane-fresh.html Condensed Matter Mon, 27 Sep 2021 08:56:59 EDT news551951814 Engineers at MIT have developed a new approach to removing lead or other heavy-metal contaminants from water, in a process that they say is far more energy-efficient than any other currently used system, though there are others under development that come close. Ultimately, it might be used to treat lead-contaminated water supplies at the home level, or to treat contaminated water from some chemical or industrial processes. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-low-cost-energy-efficient-approach-contaminated-heavy.html Materials Science Wed, 22 Sep 2021 10:15:11 EDT news551524502