Ryan DuChanois

• Rice University

Thin-film composite reverse osmosis membranes have remained the gold standard technology for desalination and water purification for nearly half a century. Polyamide films offer excellent water permeability and salt rejection but also suffer from poor chlorine resistance, high fouling propensity, and low boron rejection. We addressed these issues b...

Separation of specific ions from water could enable recovery and reuse of essential metals and nutrients, but established membrane technologies lack the high-precision selectivity needed to facilitate a circular resource economy. In this work, we investigate whether the cation/cation selectivity of a composite cation-exchange membrane (CEM), or a t...

Modern technology relies on an undisrupted supply of metals, yet many metals have limited geological deposits. Recovering metals from wastewater and brine could augment metal stocks, but there is little guidance on which metals to prioritize for recovery or on the techno-economic viability of extraction processes. Here we critically assess the pote...

There is a need for membranes and processes that can selectively separate target ions from other similar ionic species. Recent studies have shown that electrified processes for ion removal such as membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) and electrodialysis (ED) are selective towards specific ionic species, but selectivities are generally limited. H...

State-of-the-art polymeric membranes are unable to perform the high-precision ion separations needed for technologies essential to a circular economy and clean energy future. Coordinative interactions are a mechanism to increase sorption of a target species into a membrane, but the effects of these interactions on membrane permeability and selectiv...

Polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes (PEMs) produced by the sequential, layer-by-layer deposition of polyelectrolytes on porous supports have been shown to significantly reject ions in dilute saline solutions. However, polyelectrolyte thin films are susceptible to swelling or detachment from the substrate in higher salinities and extreme pH conditi...

Since the advent of thin-film composite polyamide membranes brought forth a breakthrough in desalination and water purification membranes nearly half a century ago, recent years have only witnessed marginal improvements in the water-salt selectivity of these membranes. The slow progression is partly attributable to limited understanding of membrane...

Synthetic polymer membranes are enabling components in key technologies at the water–energy nexus, including desalination and energy conversion, because of their high water/salt selectivity or ionic conductivity. However, many applications at the water–energy nexus require ion selectivity, or separation of specific ionic species from other similar...

Membrane separation has enjoyed tremendous advances in relevant material and engineering sciences, making it the fastest growing technology in water treatment. Although membranes as a broad-spectrum physical barrier have great advantages over conventional treatment processes in a myriad of applications, the need for higher selectivity and specifici...

Chlorination is a common practice to prevent biofouling in municipal water supplies, wastewater reuse and seawater desalination. However, polyamide thin-film composite reverse osmosis membranes—the premier technology for desalination and clean-water production—structurally deteriorate when continually exposed to chlorine species. Here, we use layer...

Minimizing the energy consumption of desalination processes is an important goal for augmenting freshwater production and mitigating water scarcity. Chemical, civil, mechanical , and environmental engineering students can derive and analyze the energy consumption of desalination processes by applying engineering fundamentals such as thermodynamics,...

Synthetic membranes with pores at the subnanometre scale are at the core of processes for separating solutes from water, such as water purification and desalination. While these membrane processes have achieved substantial industrial success, the capability of state-of-the-art membranes to selectively separate a single solute from a mixture of solu...

We investigated the relative contributions of intra-pore diffusion (via membrane thickness) and partitioning into nanofiltration (NF) membrane pores (via membrane pore size and ion hydration energy) to the apparent energy barriers for ion transport in NF membranes. Using polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer assembly, we independently altered NF membrane...

One of the primary functions of green roofs in urban areas is to moderate rainwater runoff, and one of the major impediments to the survival of plants on an extensive green roof (EGR) is a lack of available water during dry periods. Runoff moderation and water storage are both influenced by the composition of the growing media. Here we present a fr...

In the Results section of the originally published article,1 there are several instances where we incorrectly reported predicted water service continuity (WSC) values as odds ratios (OR). We have provided a corrected version of the relevant text in the Results section below, with the updated text (i.e., WSC) shown in bold. The error does not affect...

Access to continuous water supply is key for improving health and economic outcomes in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries, but the factors associated with continuous water access in these areas have not been well characterized. We surveyed 4786 households for evidence of technical, financial, institutional, social, and environmental pr...

Nanofiltration membranes have limited ion-ion selectivity in water treatment applications, especially when separating ions with similar size and charge. To achieve greater size-based selectivity in nanofiltration, more control of pore structure is required during membrane fabrication. We demonstrate how to tailor membrane pore size and thickness us...

In the version of the Supplementary Information file originally published with this Article, the images used for Supplementary Fig. 4 were incorrect and have now been replaced. This does not affect the results of the Article.

Current technologies for water purification are limited by their contaminant-specific removal capability, requiring multiple processes to meet water quality objectives. Here we show an innovative biomimetic micellar nanocoagulant that imitates the structure of Actinia, a marine predator that uses its tentacles to ensnare food, for the removal of an...