Related papers: Designing an All-Carbon Membrane for Water Desalin…
The synthesis of wafer-scale two-dimensional amorphous carbon monolayers has been recently demonstrated. This material presents useful properties when integrated as coating of metals, semiconductors or magnetic materials, such as enabling…
Methane, the primary constituent of natural gas, binds too weakly to nanostructured carbons to meet the targets set for on-board vehicular storage to be viable. We show, using density functional theory calculations, that replacing graphene…
Water is a ubiquitous liquid with unique physico-chemical properties, whose nature has shaped our planet and life as we know it. Water in restricted geometries has different properties than in bulk. Confinement can prevent low-temperature…
Access to intrinsic properties of a 2D material is challenging due to the absence of a bulk that would dominate over surface contamination, and this lack of bulk also precludes effective conventional cleaning methods that are almost always…
Understanding how water interacts with graphene at the molecular level is essential for advancing nanomaterial applications in filtration, catalysis, and environmental technologies. This study establishes a quantitative baseline for…
Osmotic transport in nanoconfined aqueous electrolytes provides new venues for water desalination and "blue energy" harvesting; the osmotic response of nanofluidic systems is controlled by the interfacial structure of water and electrolyte…
Mirroring their role in electrical and optical physics, two-dimensional crystals are emerging as novel platforms for fluid separations and water desalination, which are hydrodynamic processes that occur in nanoscale environments. For…
A great efficacy of molecular quantum chemistry applied to basic graphene problems has been recently demonstrated by the authors when studying the formation of peculiar composites between carbon nanotubes and graphene as well as considering…
We report a chemical free method for the reduction of graphene oxide (GO) thin films. It was observed how for GO films annealed in air the oxygen species desorb from the GO surface upon exposure to UV light and how the surface resistivity…
A novel concept of membrane process in thermal-driven system is proposed for water desalination. By means of molecular dynamics simulations, we show fast water transport through graphene galleries at a temperature gradient. Water molecules…
Carbon nanostructures with zigzag edges exhibit unique properties with exciting potential applications. Such nanostructures are generally synthesized under vacuum because their zigzag edges are unstable under ambient conditions: a barrier…
Supercapacitors operating in aqueous solutions are low cost energy storage devices with high cycling stability and fast charging and discharging capabilities, but have suffered from low energy densities. Here, we grow Ni(OH)2 nanoplates and…
When it is oxidized, graphite can be easily exfoliated forming graphene oxide (GO). GO is a critical intermediate for massive production of graphene, and it is also an important material with various application potentials. With many…
Carbon fibres (CF) represent a significant volume fraction of modern structural airframes. Embedded into polymer matrices, they provide significant strength and stiffness gains over unit weight as compared to other competing structural…
Graphene-based laminates, with ultralong and tortuous nanocapillaries formed by simply stacking graphene flakes together, have great promises in filtration and separation. However, the information on liquid water trans-membrane permeation…
Adsorption of hydrogen atoms to a carbon atom vacancy in graphene is investigated by means of periodic \emph{first principles} calculations, up to the fully hydrogenated state where six H atoms chemically bind to the vacancy. Addition of a…
In this work, we design a TiO2 nanomembrane (TiNM) that can be used as a nanofilter platform for a selective enrichment of specific proteins. After use the photocatalytic properties of TiO2 allow to decompose unwanted remnant on the…
Efficient heat management and control in optical devices, facilitated by advanced thermo-optic materials, is critical for many applications such as photovoltaics, thermal emitters, mode-locked lasers, and optical switches. Here, we…
Electrospun nanofibrous membranes of natural polymers, such as gelatin, are fundamental in the design of regenerative devices. Crosslinking of electrospun fibres from gelatin is required to prevent dissolution in water, to retain the…
Graphene has recently attracted a great deal of interest in both academia and industry because of its unique electronic and optical properties [1,2], as well as its chemical, thermal, and mechanical properties. The superb characteristics of…