Nanowerk November 4, 2023 Researchers in China have reported a kind of light-responsive MOF adsorption material which was fabricated by covalently immobilizing photoactive spiropyran (SP) molecules onto a chromium(III)-based amino-tagged MIL-101 framework through amide linkages. The photoisomerization of SP moieties provided these materials with reversible binding to metal ions. In the dark, the SP-modified MOFs were capable of adsorbing multiple monovalent and divalent salts from saline water and effectively released the adsorbed ions into water upon exposure to simulated sunlight. The MOFs showed excellent salt adsorption capacity, of which the MOF with an SP modification ratio of 39% had an […]
Tag Archives: Desalination
Proof of water wires motivated by a biological water channel
Science Daily April 26, 2018 Aquaporins are proteins that serve as water channels to regulate the flow of water across biological cell membranes; they remove excess salt and impurities in the body. An international team of researchers (France, USA- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell University) synthesized and studied the dynamics of a ring structure of the imidazole, a nitrogen-based organic compound, embedded in a supported lipid bilayer. They have shown that water exists in the imidazole water channel and the imidazole ring construct induces the water molecules to self-assemble into a highly oriented linear chain structure — dubbed “water wires.” The […]