IITGn researchers develop technique to make seawater drinkable

Indian Institute of Technology- Gandhinagar, IITGn researchers develop a cost-effective and environment-friendly water desalination technique to make seawater drinkable. The team created controllable water transport channels in graphite crystal with the help of an electric field and potassium chloride ions, which allowed only freshwater to move through the crystal and blocked the salt ions.

The research is inspired by the trees’ natural intake of water that uses capillary effect and can prove to be impactful in providing affordable and energy-efficient drinking water solutions compared to energy-intense RO technologies. This is the first such method that could controllably manipulate graphite inside aqueous solutions without damaging the structural integrity of graphite.

The research developed by a team led by Prof Gopinadhan Kalon, Assistant Professor, Physics and Materials Engineering IITGN, includes PhD scholars Lalita Saini, Aparna Rathi, Suvigya Kaushik, and a Postdoctoral fellow Siva Sankar Nemala.