Finally, 3D-printed graphene aerogels for water treatment

New Atlas, Science Codex, Water Online and other news outlets covered research by UB engineers on a new process of 3D printing graphene aerogels that they say overcomes two key hurdles — scalability and creating a version of the material that’s stable enough for repeated use — for water treatment.

“The goal is to safely remove contaminants from water without releasing any problematic chemical residue,” says study co-author Nirupam Aich, assistant professor of environmental engineering. “The aerogels we’ve created hold their structure when put in water treatment systems, and they can be applied in diverse water treatment applications.”

The study — “3D printed graphene-biopolymer aerogels for water contaminant removal: a proof of concept” — was published in the Emerging Investigator Series of the journal Environmental Science: Nano. Arvid Masud, PhD, a former student in Aich’s lab, is the lead author; Chi Zhou, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering at UB, is a co-author.

Read the story here. Science Codex, Water Online, Phys.org, Printed Electronics World, Technology.org also covered the research.