Graphene Used in Desalination Could Revolutionize Industry

Business Insider reported on the latest technology in desalination — removing salt from seawater — could prove to be a game-changer for the industry as a whole. At the crux of this technology sits graphene, whose honeycomb lattice structure trap the salt and other impurities.

John Stetson, chief technologist working on the technology at Lockheed commented:

In addition, the film is super thin — just a single atom thick — so that the water simply “pops through the very, very small holes that we make in the graphene and leaves the salt behind.

According to Stetson:

The perforated graphene is aptly called Perforene. Lockheed has the U.S. Patent on this technology and is currently pumping out “pretty big quantities of it” at Lockheed’s advanced technology center in Palo Alto, California.

The Perforene has a smoky grey-color film that is translucent, even though its carbon, because it is so thin. It’s also about 1,000 times stronger than steel, but still has a permeability that is about 100 times greater than the best competitive membrane out in the market.

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