Research Projects

Water scarcity is a pressing issue due to population growth, climate change, and industrial revolutions. India, with 18% of the world's population, has only 4% of drinkable water, highlighting the need for seawater desalination technology. Traditional membranes, such as polymeric, cellulosic, and biological membranes, have drawbacks such as low permeability, separation efficiency, fouling, and chlorine tolerance. This project aims to address these issues by using atomically thin 2D membranes like Graphene, Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs), Boron Nitride (BN), Mxenes, and Metal oxide frameworks. These materials have excellent mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties and offer better ion rejection capability. The project designs nanoporous membranes using different 2D materials using all-atom Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations to obtain maximum water permeation rate and ion rejection rate. The study proposes developing scaling laws and models to scale desalination performance from single nanopore to multi-pore systems, providing new insights for better designing 2D membranes and their scalability in real-time implementation.