Graphene-Enhanced Water Purification

Purpose and goal

The goal of this project is to explore the feasibility of developing scalable and cost-effective techniques to effectively resolve the biofouling issues in the present water purification technologies. Our project results have confirmed the feasibility.

Expected results and effects

In practice, we have developed a unique inkjet printing technique to fabricate graphene coatings with plenty of vertically standing flakes. Two independent tests have confirmed the biofouling resistance performance of the printed vertical graphene coatings. In consideration of the simple and scalable processing, the inkjet printing technique developed in this project has great potential to address the biofouling issues and substantially contribute to the further market of water purification.

Planned approach and implementation

The Printed Electronics group at KTH has developed comprehensive inkjet printing and spraying techniques to fabricate graphene coatings on different substrates (glass, plastics, etc.) with different graphene orientation and morphology. Sta Maria Water AB has conducted two independent tests, Hygicult TPC test and crystal violet staining test, to characterize the biofouling resistance performance of the graphene coatings.