Research & Development World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Two-dimensional Materials Find Synergy with Graphene

By Heidi Hall, Vanderbilt University | October 11, 2018

Where researchers who worked with two-dimensional materials and those who worked with membranes were once separate, synergistic opportunities are resulting in exciting new developments at their intersection, a Vanderbilt University chemical and biomolecular engineering professor has both opined and proven.

In a review published earlier this year in Advanced Materials, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Piran Kidambi and his team explored new interest in using materials only one atom thick for membrane applications.

They explained the landscape on how the technology evolved and advanced and how the field is ripe for collaborations.

Kidambi and his team more recently applied that overlap in their own work to address some of the most critical challenges in membrane research: achieving high flow-through membranes without compromising filtration performance.

The team initially focused on developing methods to directly form nanoscale holes into an atomically thin material.

The team dialed down the temperature during graphene and found this resulted in nanoscale holes — missing carbon atoms from the two-dimensional layer of them bonded in a hexagonal lattice.

“It reminded me of decreasing the temperature while baking a chocolate cake to get a different texture,” Kidambi says.

However, the atomically thin graphene with nanoscales holes needed to be supported to form a membrane.

The team turned to conventional polymer membrane manufacturing techniques and decided to spread a thin polymer layer on the nanoporous graphene and dipped the stack into a water bath.

The dip transformed the polymer to a porous support layer with graphene on the top, effectively forming an atomically thin membrane.

“Continuing on with the baking analogy, this was like dough transforming into porous bread — the support polymer layer.”

Polymer casting on nanoporous CVD graphene for facile nanoporous atomically thin membrane fabrication. Image: Piran Kidambi

The team used these atomically thin membranes to demonstrate separation of salt and small molecules from small proteins.

“Most commercial membranes achieve separation at small size ranges by making a dense polymer layer that is several microns thick with tortuous pores,” Kidambi says.

“Diffusion across these layers is very slow. Here, we make membranes that are one atom thick and show much higher permeance — up to 100 times greater than the state-of-the-art commercial dialysis membranes — specifically in the low molecular weight cut-off range.

“We think these membranes could offer transformative advances for small molecule separation, fine chemical purification, buffer exchange and a number of other processes including lab-scale dialysis.”

Kidambi’s paper on his work, “Facile Fabrication of Large-Area Atomically Thin Membranes by Direct Synthesis of Graphene with Nanoscale Porosity,” appears online in Advanced Materials.

The team included collaborators from MIT, Oxford University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy at MIT and faculty startup funding at Vanderbilt.

Kidambi says his next step is collaborating with the Vanderbilt University Medical Center to explore therapeutic applications.

Source: Vanderbilt University  

Related Articles Read More >

The emerging materials shaping next-generation semiconductor electronics
24 R&D trends that redefined 2024
Graphene-based flowmeter sensor measures nano-rate fluid flows, Part 3: The sensor
Graphene-based flowmeter sensor measures nano-rate fluid flows, Part 2: The graphene context
rd newsletter
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, trends, and strategies in Research & Development.
RD 25 Power Index

R&D World Digital Issues

Fall 2024 issue

Browse the most current issue of R&D World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading R&D magazine today.

Research & Development World
  • Subscribe to R&D World Magazine
  • Enews Sign Up
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • Global Funding Forecast

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search R&D World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE