CPC B01D 71/021 (2013.01) [B01D 67/0041 (2013.01); B01D 69/02 (2013.01); B01D 69/10 (2013.01); B01D 2323/35 (2013.01)] | 9 Claims |
1. A method of separating hydrated ions from a fluid stream, the method comprising:
providing a plurality of graphene-based membranes, each graphene-based membrane comprising a stacked arrangement of layers of a graphene-based material, the layers of the graphene-based material defining one or more nanochannels between neighboring layers,
chemically engineering one or more of the plurality of graphene-based membranes to possess a desired electrical charge to increase a filtering efficiency for hydrated anions at substantially a same size of the one or more nanochannels for maintaining a desired flow though the graphene-based membrane,
chemically engineering one or more of the plurality of the graphene-based membranes to possess a desired electrical charge to increase a filtering efficiency for hydrated cations at substantially a same size of the one or more nanochannels for maintaining a desired flow though the graphene based membrane,
disposing the plurality of graphene-based membranes such that one or more adjacent cell pairs are provided, each cell pair comprising one graphene-based membrane for filtering the anions and one graphene-based membrane for filtering the cations separated by a passageway, and
directing a fluid stream comprising the hydrated ions through the respective passageways for filtering of the hydrated ions from the fluid stream.
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