Membraneless water filtration using CO. Author Sangwoo Shin, Orest Shardt, Patrick Warren, Howard Stone Publication Year 2017 Type Journal Article Abstract Water purification technologies such as microfiltration/ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis utilize porous membranes to remove suspended particles and solutes. These membranes, however, cause many drawbacks such as a high pumping cost and a need for periodic replacement due to fouling. Here we show an alternative membraneless method for separating suspended particles by exposing the colloidal suspension to CO. Dissolution of CO into the suspension creates solute gradients that drive phoretic motion of particles. Due to the large diffusion potential generated by the dissociation of carbonic acid, colloidal particles move either away from or towards the gas-liquid interface depending on their surface charge. Using the directed motion of particles induced by exposure to CO, we demonstrate a scalable, continuous flow, membraneless particle filtration process that exhibits low energy consumption, three orders of magnitude lower than conventional microfiltration/ultrafiltration processes, and is essentially free from fouling. Journal Nat Commun Volume 8 Pages 15181 Date Published 2017 May 02 ISSN Number 2041-1723 DOI 10.1038/ncomms15181 Alternate Journal Nat Commun PMCID PMC5418569 PMID 28462929 PubMedPubMed CentralGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML