A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study is the first to describe an electrochemical strategy to capture, concentrate and destroy mixtures of diverse chemicals known as PFAS — including the increasingly prevalent ultra-short-chain PFAS — from water in a single process. This new development is poised to address the growing industrial problem of contamination with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing.
A previous U. of I. study showed that short- and long-chain PFAS can be removed from water using electrochemically driven adsorption, referred to as electrosorption, but this method is ineffective for ultra-short-chain molecules because of their small size and different chemical properties. The new study, led by Illinois chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Xiao Su, combines a desalination filtration technology, called redox electrodialysis, with electrosorption in a single device to address the problems associated with capturing the complete PFAS size spectrum.
The study findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.
With the construction of semiconductor factories expected to rise, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are working to get ahead of the PFAS pollution issues associated with the fabrication process. (Photo Credit: Lehava Center Qiryat Gat)
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