Reverse osmosis

Brackish water

Engineering

Polymer chemistry

Materials science

Polyamide

Biochemistry

Salinity

Chemical engineering

Geology

Oceanography

Polymer

Membrane

Desalination

Composite material

Chemistry

Monomer

Interfacial polymerization

Science

Spraying makes it smoother Commercial reverse osmosis processes for water desalination use membranes made by the polymerization of polyamide at the oil/water interface. Chowdhury et al. show that thinner, smoother membranes can be made with an electrospray technique. Using high voltage, the two precursors are finely sprayed onto a substrate and polymerize on contact. The composition of the resulting membrane can be tuned on the basis of the proportion of the two components. At optimum conditions, the membranes appear to be better at desalination than current commercial reverse osmosis membranes. Science , this issue p. 682

3D printed polyamide membranes for desalination