PNNL

International and national news outlets are quoting a researcher at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as they report on a new nano-sieve developed by the University of Manchester in the U.K.

The outlets quoted materials scientist Ram Devanathan as an outside expert not involved in the membrane's development after the journal Nature Nanotechnology invited him to pen a News & Views column on the technology. The sieve is made of the nanomaterial graphene oxide and filters salts from water, turning seawater into clean drinking water.

He's been quoted by several news outlets, including:

• BBC
• International Business Times
• CNN
• Popular Science

Devanathan has extensively studied membranes for selective separation. Through his research, he has advanced fundamental understanding of the transport of protons, small molecules and ions through membranes, including those made with graphene oxide. Devanathan is currently involved in a project under PNNL's Materials Synthesis and Simulation Across Scales Initiative that uses computational simulations integrated with experiments to scale up graphene oxide membranes for selective water and ion transport.

He is also serving as the acting director of PNNL's earth systems science division. Devanathan is a fellow of the American Ceramic Society and holds a doctorate in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University in Illinois.