Researchers at China’s Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics have discovered the act of dragging saltwater over graphene creates electricity.

This graphene membrane may be capable of removing salt from seawater. It would aid millions of people without access to clean drinking water. The new technology is now being tested against existing desalination membranes.

(Phys.org) -- Although oceans and seas contain about 97% of Earth’s water, currently only a fraction of a percent of the world’s potable water supply comes from desalinated salt water. In order to increase our use of salt water, desalination techniques must become more energy-efficient and less expensive to be sustainable. In a new study, two materials scientists from MIT have shown in simulations that nanoporous graphene can filter salt from water at a rate that is 2-3 orders of magnitude faster than today’s best commercial desalination technology, reverse osmosis (RO). The researchers predict that graphene’s superior water permeability could lead to desalination techniques that require less energy and use smaller modules than RO technology, at a cost that will depend on future improvements in graphene fabrication methods.