Graphene cOmposites FOR advanced drinking WATER treatment

Research Project, 2019 – 2022

Purpose and goal: End goal of GO-FOR-WATER is to develop filters based on graphene-oxide composites for the simultaneous removal of ECs from drinking water, to be integrated in Point-Of-Use devices (POU). Processing technologies such as conventional electrospinning, core-shell electrospinning/electrospraying will exploited to fabricate GO-polymer composites with different hierarchical structures. The removal efficiency will be assessed and the best performing materials will be integrated into real scale filters for POU. Expected results and effects: More than 30000 chemicals including drugs, healthcare products, pesticides, are used by European population and industries every day. These molecules, called ‘contaminants of emerging concern (CECS)’ end up in surface water and have been detected even in our drinking water. Therefore, beside fundamental understanding on the structure-property relationships of graphene materials composition and structure the results of GO-FOR-WATER will contribute to the access of graphene to the water treatment market.

Approach and implementation: The project consists of partners with expertise from different EU countries - CNR Italy, Chalmers University of Technology Sweden, University of Patras in Greece and Sabanci University in Turkey. It will be carried out in five work packages. WP1 - Project management, WP2 - Synthesis and structural property conditions for GRM, WP3 - GRM deposition/processing in 3D structures and characterization, WP4 performance in small-scale filters, WP5 - Scale up-Pilot test.

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