The ocean will become a source of fresh water

The fresh water lack problem is critically acute in many countries of the world. According to official UN reports, if nothing is done in this respect, by the year 2030, about 65% of the world's population will remain without access to safe drinking water.

Unsanitary conditions and "dirty hand disease" daily carry away thousands of children's lives. The number of people on Earth is growing, and along with it, there is a growing deficit of fresh water - a resource that, under such forecasts, will soon become more expensive than gold.

The Worlds ocean is its colossal source, which, unfortunately, can not be used for drinking because of the huge amount of salts dissolved in it. The desalination systems existing today are not effective enough and expensive, and therefore the development of simple and cheap methods of extracting fresh water from the sea is being carried out around the world.

The Worlds ocean is water's colossal source, photo WEB

So, in early February 2018, the journal Science Advances published a large scientific article about revolutionary innovation, which was the joint work of chemists from the Texas and two independent Australian universities. Scientists propose a fundamentally new technological process using metal organic framework (MOF) membranes, which repeat the filtration method used by living cell membranes.

Fifteen years ago, the discovery of this mechanism in living organisms brought its author the Nobel Prize. Today, the same way, reproduced artificially, the way of seawater filtration promises to find application in the most diverse spheres of human activity.

Metal organic framework membranes, photo WEB

Such organometallic structures are like sponges capable to collect, preserve and release certain chemical elements from the environment. Selective permeability allows using them as filters that capture specific molecules or even atoms. Physically, they are a porous polymer whose internal surface area has no analogues in living nature.

Unlike the popular osmotic method of water desalination today, organometallic structures (abbreviated MOF) "grab" the necessary molecules in practically standing water, and therefore expend a minimum of energy at maximum efficiency.

MOF expend a minimum of energy at maximum efficiency, photo WEB

And as often happens, in addition to the special purpose, MOFs have a huge potential for use in other industries. In particular, they are able to radically change the technology of lithium mining - the most important element in our time. It presence in the batteries of telephones, electric cars and other devices that determines half of their cost.

World reserves of lithium are large - it is mined or extracted by evaporation from brines of very salty water bodies, and also it is recovered from the used instruments in the process of recycling. But these processes are expensive, complex and resource-intensive. But also, the huge reserves of lithium are dissolved in the World Ocean and thanks to the works of American and Australian scientists, a real opportunity appeared to extract it practically for free and without incidental waste.

World reserves of lithium are large - it is extracted in mines, photo WEB

In the same way, it is potentially possible to use MOF to extract gold or other chemical elements. The idea of the possibility of using organometallic structures for wastewater treatment has already been voiced. It is noteworthy that such an approach will make it possible to turn it from a deadly source of pollution into the richest and easily accessible resource.

Victoria Romanova, Russia, Moscow

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