CEE Seminar – Molecular separations for diverse applications: water desalination, energy storage, resource recovery, and PFAS removal

Molecular separations technologies separate and/or isolate individual species from mixtures or solutions. These technologies are used in a wide range of applications such as in the environmental, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, energy, food, and beverage industries. Despite such diverse applications, all molecular separations technologies use the common principle of exploiting differences in mass transport due to differences in molecular physical and chemical properties, including size, charge, affinity, and mobility, among others. In this seminar, we provide a brief background on key mass transport concepts and molecular properties relevant to separations technologies studied in the Coronell Laboratory. We then describe how, through the study of these properties, we have helped advance the understanding and/or performance of separations materials and technologies in diverse applications. We focus on membranes for water desalination and more briefly cover contributions to energy storage, valuable resource recovery, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) removal from water.