Desalination Capability Research Articles

Boosting Capacitive Deionization Performance of Commercial Carbon Fibers Cloth via Structural Regulation Based on Catalytic‐Etching Effect

Monolithic carbon electrodes with robust mechanical integrity and porous architecture are highly desired for capacitive deionization but remain challenging. Owing to the excellent mechanical strength and electroconductivity, commercial carbon fibers cloth demonstrates great potential as high‐performance electrodes for ions storage. Despite this, its direct application on capacitive deionization is rarely reported in terms of limited pore structure and natural hydrophobicity. Herein, a powerful metal‐organic framework‐engaged structural regulation strategy is developed to boost the desalination properties of carbon fibers. The obtained porous carbon fibers features hierarchical porous structure and hydrophilic surface providing abundant ions‐accessible sites, and continuous graphitized carbon core ensuring rapid electrons transport. The catalytic‐etching mechanism involving oxidation of Co and subsequent carbonthermal reduction is proposed and highly relies on annealing temperature and holding time. When directly evaluated as a current collector‐free capacitive deionization electrode, the porous carbon fibers demonstrates much superior desalination capability than pristine carbon fibers, and remarkable cyclic stability up to 20 h with negligible degeneration. Particularly, the PCF‐1000 showcases the highest areal salt adsorption capacity of 0.037 mg cm−2 among carbon microfibers. Moreover, monolithic porous carbon fibers‐carbon nanotubes with increased active sites and good structural integrity by in‐situ growth of carbon nanotubes are further fabricated to enhance the desalination performance (0.051 mg cm−2). This work demonstrates the great potential of carbon fibers in constructing high‐efficient and robust monolithic electrode for capacitive deionization.

Coffee Grounds-Doped Alginate Porous Materials for Efficient Solar Steam Generation.

Solar steam generation (SSG) devices have emerged as one of the promising technologies for seawater desalination to meet the worldwide demand for clean water. Herein, we fabricated a new monolithic SSG system derived from waste coffee grounds (CG) through a simple carbonization followed by a freeze-drying process (named as CCGA). The as-prepared CCGA possesses a porous structure with superhydrophilic, abundant porosity (81.7%); low thermal conductivity (0.129 W m-1 K-1) in a wet state; low apparent density (25 mg cm-3); and broad sunlight absorption in a wet state (ca. 93%). The combination of its carbon nature and abundant porous structure endowed barrier-free water transmission channels, a self-floating property, and a superb photothermal conversion performance to the SSG. The temperature of the CCGA's upper surface can reach up to 42.6 °C under 1 sun irradiation, and for pure water, the evaporation rate of CCGA can be up to 1.486 kg m-2 h-1, corresponding to a good photothermal conversion efficiency of 86.96%. It also exhibits an excellent desalination capability; e.g., the photothermal conversion efficiency of CCGA in NaCl (20 wt %) brine is measured to be 75.77% under 1 sun irradiation, and the fresh water obtained from artificial seawater can achieve the WHO's standard for domestic water. With the advantages of low cost and a simple preparation process, such biomass-based CCGA materials may have great potential as an efficient SSG device for seawater desalination.

Efficient Transport System of Cultivated Mushroom Mycelium Enables its Derived Carbon with High Performance Electrochemical Desalination Capability

Efficient Transport System of Cultivated Mushroom Mycelium Enables its Derived Carbon with High Performance Electrochemical Desalination Capability

Theoretically achievable efficiency of hydrate-based desalination and its significance for evaluating kinetic desalination performance of gaseous hydrate formers

Freshwater can be obtained through gas hydrate formation from saline water, which is called hydrate-based desalination (HBD). In this study, the thermodynamic and kinetic features of propane, R134a, R22, and R152a hydrates in the presence of NaCl were examined to determine the energy-efficient gaseous hydrate former. Structure I hydrate formers (R22 and R152) gave lower hydrate depression temperatures than structure II hydrate formers (propane and R134a) at a given salinity. The theoretically achievable salinity and water yield of HBD at each given thermodynamic condition were calculated using the Hu–Lee–Sum correlation. The theoretical HBD efficiency increased as the initial salinity decreased, the operating pressure decreased, and the initial subcooling temperature increased. At a fixed initial subcooling (2 K), R134a gave faster formation kinetics in the early stage, but R22 eventually offered highest hydrate conversion. At a fixed temperature (272 K), R152a showed fastest formation kinetics and highest HBD efficiency due to its milder hydrate equilibrium conditions. The overall results demonstrated that the thermodynamic stability and the intrinsic formation kinetics of gas hydrates significantly impact HBD efficiency and that the theoretical HBD efficiency can be the quantitative criterion for evaluating the kinetic performance and desalination capability of hydrate formers.

Sulfonated Phthalocyanine Redox Flow Cell for Electrochemical Water Desalination

A reliable clean water supply is now one important and challenging issue for the human society. With the facts that only 0.4% of the water on earth is readily drinkable and 98% of the water is saltwater, water desalination for clean water production has become a key strategic solution to satisfy the increasing global water demand. Over the years, different saltwater desalination technologies were researched and developed, including reverse osmosis membrane desalination (RO), electrodialysis (ED), capacitive desalination (CDI) and multi-effect distillation (MED). However, some inherent technical issues, like high operation cost, large capital cost and/or low desalination capacity, associate with these existing technologies that lead to a high clean water production cost and limit their applications. Thus, there is a need of new water desalination technology that can purify saltwater with low cost and high efficiency.In this work we report a new water-soluble nickel phthalocyanine tetrasulfonic acid tetrasodium salt (NiPcTATS)-based redox flow desalination battery (RFDB) for safe, effective and efficient water-salt separation. The fabricated RFDB cell exhibited a high desalination rate at 3.4 gNaCl/(molNiPcTATS∙hr) even with a low 0.5 V cell voltage and required as low as 11.5 kJ/mol salt in energy consumption. The cell showed excellent reversibility and durability for long-term operation, benefiting from the fast-redox kinetics and chemical stability of the redox couple. With no consumption of the redox couple and energy recovery during the salination process, this new method provides a continuous desalination capability with unlimited salt removal capacity. We also demonstrated the use of simple solar panel for effectively driving the RFDB cell, proving it a promising and practical technology for clean water production in remote places like islands and ships.

In situ potential measurement in a flow-electrode CDI for energy consumption estimation and system optimization

Flow electrode capacitive deionization (FCDI) is a promising electrochemical technique for brackish water desalination; however, there are challenges in estimating the distribution of resistance and energy consumption inside a FCDI system, which hinders the optimization of the rate-limiting compartment. In this study, energy consumption of each FCDI component (e.g., flow electrodes, membranes and desalination chamber) was firstly described by using in situ potential measurement (ISPM). Results of this study showed that the energy consumption (EC) of the flow electrodes dominated under most conditions. While an increase in the carbon black content in the flow electrodes could improve the energy efficiency of the electrode component, consideration should be given to the contribution of ion exchange membranes (IEMs) and the desalination chamber to the EC. Based on the above analysis, system optimization was carried out by introducing IEMs with relatively low resistance and/or packing the desalination chamber with titanium meshes. Results showed that the voltage-driven desalination capability was increased by 39.3% with the EC reduced by 17.5% compared to the control, which overcame the tradeoff between the kinetic and energetic efficiencies. Overall, the present work facilitates our understanding of the potential drops across an FCDI system and provides insight to the optimization of system design and operation.

Anion-/cationic compounds enhance the dispersion of flow electrodes to obtain high capacitive deionization performance

Flow electrode capacitive deionization (FCDI) possesses continuous desalination capability by using a flowable electrode instead of a fixed electrode, which greatly increases the desalination capacity. However, the poor conductivity of the flow electrode slurry and the high blocking risk of the flow channel limit the larger scale FCDI in deionization. Herein, we report a flow electrode by introducing anion-/cationic compounds as conductive and dispersing agents into activated carbon (AC). A small amount of anion/cationic compounds formed electrostatic repulsion force, which improved the utilization rate and dosage of AC and reduced the co-ion effect in electrode slurry. Through investigation, we found that 20 wt% AC with anion-/cationic compounds (0.13 wt% polyetherimide and 0.25 wt% sulfosuccinic) had a higher salt ion removal rate (2.35 to 5.97 mmol/(m2·s)) and current efficiency (96.23%) than AC alone (0.82 mmol/(m2·s)) at 1.0 V in 0.59–5.06 g/L NaCl solution, which was also higher than that in previous studies. Meanwhile, electrochemical and physical characterization analyses further revealed that polymers can effectively improve the conductivity of the electrode solution and stabilize the pH change of the electrode slurry during the charging process. Ultimately, all effects work together to achieve an efficient desalination system.

One-step ultrafast deflagration synthesis of N-doped WO2.9 nanorods for solar water evaporation

Up to now, the seawater desalination utilizing solar water evaporation has been considered as the most promising solution to solve water-shortage problems. Thus, preparing efficient photo-thermal conversion materials for water evaporation with an ultrafast and cheap method is a big challenge. Herein, the N-WO2.9 photo-thermal materials with the oxygen vacancy and N co-doping are synthesized by an ultrafast one-step NaN3 deflagration method. The deflagration produces Na clusters and N radicals, subsequently the former acts as a reductant capturing partial O from WO3, and the latter is partly doped in crystal lattice, which causes the phase transition from WO3 to N-WO2.9 and leads to a narrowed band gap. The modified materials significantly increase solar absorption and photo-thermal conversion, especially in visible and near infrared light. Hence, the N-doped WO2.9/cellulose paper photo-thermal membranes possess the superb water evaporation rate of 1.45 kg m-2h−1, stable efficiency of 83.1%, and the excellent desalination capability under 1 solar illumination. In addition, the deflagration method simultaneously achieving oxygen vacancy and high N-doping have opened up a new route for the design and synthesis of photo-thermal semiconductor materials.

Impacts of PVDF polymorphism and surface printing micro-roughness on superhydrophobic membrane to desalinate high saline water

Many studies have focused on increasing the superhydrophobicity of membranes to enhance the sustainable desalination capability of membrane distillation (MD) process. This work focuses on the influences of crystalline β-polymorphs and micro-roughness surface-printing, to transform the surface of hydrophobic poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membranes to achieve superhydrophobicity. This study uses two types of PVDF (HV- and LV-PVDF) with different polymer chain lengths and polymer densities. According to FTIR analyses, the membranes synthesized using HV- and LV-PVDF are mainly composed of β-phase polymorphs, with relative fractions of 0.633 and 0.472, respectively. The high content of hydrophilic β-phase polymorphs renders the contact angle (CA) of the non-surface-printed HV-PVDF membrane as low as 87.2º. Through the uniformly distributed micro-scaled structures on the surface-printed PVDF membranes, the surface-printed HV-PVDF membrane successfully surpassed the superhydrophobicity, with a CA of 151.1º and a dynamic sliding angle (SA) of 13º. Regardless of the surface-printing, the HV-PVDF membranes remain a similar surface porosity (42%). The results proved that the layered micro-roughness of surface-printing can resist membrane wetting during MD separation by achieving at least a four-fold increase in average permeation flux from 2.5 kg/m2 h to 10 kg/m2 h and salt rejection of 99.99%. This study qualitatively explains the importance of material chemistry (β-phase polymorphs) and surface roughness (micro-roughness), which affect membrane wetting resistance during MD.

A seawater battery with desalination capabilities enabling a dual-purpose aqueous energy storage system

Effectively storing electricity produced from renewable sources and increasing the supply of fresh water with a reduced carbon footprint are two pressing issues to sustainably and reliably provide electricity and clean water. In this study, a new aqueous rechargeable Na-ion battery system, which can store/release energy while operating in seawater and can also perform membrane-free seawater desalination, is developed enabling a dual-purpose energy storage system (ESS). The discharging cell of this system is composed of a sodiated NaTi2(PO4)3 electrode and a desodiated nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF) electrode in 0.6 M NaCl, and generates an average output voltage of 1.19 V. The charging process is achieved in two separate cells that require low input voltages. In the first, a desodiated NaTi2(PO4)3 electrode is paired with Bi as a Cl-storage electrode, and this cell performs desalination during charging. In the second, a sodiated NiHCF electrode is paired with a chlorinated Bi electrode, and this cell performs salination during charging. The energy output generated by the discharging cell is ~94% of the combined energy inputs required by the two charging cells. As the energy consumed for the desalination and salination processes is not truly consumed but rather stored in the system through the charging process, and the majority of the energy stored during charging is recovered during discharging, the extra energy consumed for desalination is minimized. The high energy efficiency and desalination performance of the proof-of-concept dual-purpose ESS are reported with excellent cyclabilities of all component electrodes (> 1000 cycles).

Sulfonated Phthalocyanine Redox Flow Cell for High-Performance Electrochemical Water Desalination

A reliable clean water supply is now one important and challenging issue for the human society. With the facts that only 0.4% of the water on earth is readily drinkable and 98% of the water is saltwater, water desalination for clean water production has become a key strategic solution to satisfy the increasing global water demand. Over the years, different saltwater desalination technologies were researched and developed, including reverse osmosis membrane desalination (RO), electrodialysis (ED), capacitive desalination (CDI) and multi-effect distillation (MED). However, some inherent technical issues, like high operation cost, large capital cost and/or low desalination capacity, associate with these existing technologies that lead to a high clean water production cost and limit their applications. Thus, there is a need of new water desalination technology that can purify saltwater with low cost and high efficiency.In this work we report a new water-soluble nickel phthalocyanine tetrasulfonic acid tetrasodium salt (NiPcTATS)-based redox flow desalination battery (RFDB) for safe, effective and efficient water-salt separation. The fabricated RFDB cell exhibited a high desalination rate at 3.4 gNaCl/(molNiPcTATS∙hr) even with a low 0.5 V cell voltage and required as low as 11.5 kJ/mol salt in energy consumption. The cell showed excellent reversibility and durability for long-term operation, benefiting from the fast-redox kinetics and chemical stability of the redox couple. With no consumption of the redox couple and energy recovery during the salination process, this new method provides a continuous desalination capability with unlimited salt removal capacity. We also demonstrated the use of simple solar panel for effectively driving the RFDB cell, proving it a promising and practical technology for clean water production in remote places like islands and ships.

Cross-stacked super-aligned carbon nanotube/activated carbon composite electrodes for efficient water purification via capacitive deionization enhanced ultrafiltration

The practical application of the capacitive deionization (CDI) enhanced ultrafiltration (CUF) technology is hampered due to low performance of electrodes. The current study demonstrated a novel super-aligned carbon nanotube (SACNT)/activated carbon (AC) composite electrode, which was prepared through coating AC on a cross-stacked SACNT film. The desalination capability and water purification performance of the prepared electrode were systematically investigated at different applied voltages (0.8–1.2 V) with a CDI system and a CUF system, respectively. In the CDI tests, as compared with the control AC electrode, the SACNT/AC electrode achieved an approximately 100% increase in both maximum salt adsorption capacity and average salt adsorption rate under all the applied voltage conditions, demonstrating a superior desalination capability. Meanwhile, a conspicuous increase by an average of ∼26% in charge efficiency was also achieved at all the voltages. In the CUF tests, as compared with the control run at 0 V, the treatment runs at 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2 V achieved a 2.40-fold, 2.08-fold, and 2.43-fold reduction in membrane fouling (calculated according to the final transmembrane pressure (TMP) data at the end of every purification stage), respectively. The average TMP increasing rates at 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2 V were also roughly two times smaller than that at 0 V, indicating a dramatical reduction of membrane fouling. The SACNT/AC electrode also maintained its superior desalination capability in the CUF process, resulting in an overall improved water purification efficiency.

Activated carbon-doped polystyrene fibers for direct contact membrane desalination

Membranes for direct contact membrane distillation were produced from electrospun polystyrene microfibers doped with activated carbon. The addition of activated carbon reduced the hydrophobicity of the fibers. Therefore, desalination membranes were fabricated in a multi-layer construction with undoped polystyrene as the outer layers and activated carbon-doped polystyrene as an inner layer. Membranes including activated carbon-doped layers showed a 20× greater specific surface area as compared to undoped membranes. The vapor flux of the membranes containing layers doped with activated carbon (6.3 ± 0.7 kg/m2/h) was not statistically different from that with an all polystyrene construction (8.1 ± 1.2 kg/m2/h). The membranes retained their desalination capabilities despite the addition of the activated carbon.

Ultrahigh Permeable C2N-Inspired Graphene Nanomesh Membranes versus Highly Strained C2N for Reverse Osmosis Desalination.

The reverse osmosis (RO) desalination capability of hydrogenated and hydroxylated graphene nanomesh membranes (GNMs) inspired by the morphology of carbon nitride (C2N) has been studied by using molecular dynamics simulation. As an advantage, water permeance of the GNMs is found to be several orders of magnitude higher than that of the available RO filters and comparable with highly strained C2N (S-C2N) as follows: 6,6-H,OH > 12-H > S-C2N > 5,5-H,OH > 10-H. The reverse order is found for salt rejection, regardless of S-C2N. The hydrophilic character of the incorporated -OH functional group is believed to be responsible for linking the water molecules in feed and permeate sides via the formation of strong hydrogen bonds. This leads to a remarkable reduction in resistance of water molecules during penetration across GNMs. In fact, water permeance and salt rejection of the GNMs are controllable by adjusting the effective size and chemistry of their nanopores, while these kinds of adjustments are principally impossible for C2N, resulting in limiting the water permeance. More importantly, the C2N nanofilter works efficiently only under high tensile strain, which is not so straightforward in practice. These observations are also verified by computing electrostatic potential map interaction and barrier energies for transportation of water molecules/ions through GNMs based on quantum chemistry aspects.

Preparation of particulate polyvinylidene fluoride membranes of different particle sizes for membrane distillation applications

Abstract Microporous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes were prepared by immersion precipitation of dimethylformamide/PVDF solutions, dissolved at 50°C, 60°C, 70°C, and 80°C in a nonsolvent bath. The formed membranes (M50, M60, M70, and M80) exhibited symmetric structures consisting of spherical particles whose size increased from ~1 μm for M50 to ~3 μm for M80. The desalination capabilities of the membranes were assessed via the direct contact membrane distillation process. For the case of desalting 3.5% NaCl(aq), very high rejection ratios (>99.7%) were achieved for all tested membranes under the operation conditions: T hot stream=52°C, T cold stream=18°C, circulation rate=0.7 l/min, while the highest permeation flux obtainable was 16.3 l/m2h (LMH). When the feed temperature or circulation rate was raised, the permeation flux increased correspondingly. On the other hand, raising the salt concentration resulted in a strong decrease of the permeation flux. For the membrane M60 operated over the period of 48 h, the flux decreased slightly from 11.6 to 10.5 LMH, while the conductivity increased from 1.5 to 27 μs/cm indicating the occurrence of slight surface wetting during this extended operation period.

Non-swelling graphene oxide-polymer nanocomposite membrane for reverse osmosis desalination

Although pristine graphene oxide (GO)-based membranes have previously demonstrated promising molecular separation due to their well-defined interlayer spacing, their applications in water processing operations remain limited due to the natural swelling tendency of GO in the aqueous phase which decreases separation ability. In this work, pristine GO laminate has been successfully integrated into a highly crosslinked network to produce membranes with anti-swelling behaviour and excellent desalination capability. The process of free-radical polymerisation in aqueous conditions of a GO suspension enables the formation of a GO-polymer network without covalent bonding between GO and polymer, leading to a combination of mechanical robustness, remarkable water transport properties, and an anti-swelling tendency suitable for the high-pressure operation required for reverse osmosis (RO) membrane process. The resulting GO-polymer membrane was not swollen during RO operation while it was stable under a harsh oxidising environment. It also demonstrated water flux of 33.5 L m−2 h−1 with 98.5% NaCl rejection at 10 bar when prepared by high-vacuum filtration and subsequent polymerisation of the precursor solution on to a mesoporous substrate. This methodology makes large-scalable membrane fabrication very feasible.

Ar plasma modification of 2D MXene Ti3C2Tx nanosheets for efficient capacitive desalination

MXenes are a new class of two-dimensional (2D) layered materials with excellent electrical conductivities, high specific surface areas and are overall environmentally benign. In terms of its structure, MXenes can be thought of as a stack of nanosheets with tunable interlayer spacings capable of rapid ion intercalation. As such, MXenes have been successfully employed as electrode materials in aqueous supercapacitors, Li-ion batteries and Na-ion hybrid supercapacitors in non-aqueous solutions. Herein, we report the novel application of MXenes Ti3C2Tx in a completely new field as capacitive water desalination. Interestingly, we found that the interlayer distance for the Mxenes Ti3C2Tx is able to be increased for efficient sodium ion transport by Ar plasma. To evaluate its desalination capabilities, the Ar plasma modified Ti3C2Tx was used as electrode materials and assembled in a capacitive deionization (CDI) cell. A high salt removal rate of 9.4 mg g−1 min−1 and an overall increased removal capacity of 26.8 mg g−1 was obtained when an external power of 1.2 V was applied. The desalination performance of Ar plasma modified Ti3C2Tx marks the foray of MXene materials in water desalination.

Preparation of Highly Tough Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) Heterogeneous Cation Exchange Membranes and Their Properties of Desalination

A manufacturing method has been devised to prepare novel heterogeneous cation exchange membranes by mixing ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymers with a commercial cation exchange resin. Optimum material characteristics, mixture ratios and manufacturing conditions have been worked out for achieving favorable membrane performance. Ion exchange capacity, electrical resistance, water uptake, swelling ratio and tensile strength properties were measured. SEM analysis was used to monitor morphology. Effects of vinyl acetate (VA) content, melt index (MI) and ion exchange resin content on properties of heterogeneous cation exchange membranes have been discussed. An application test was carried out by mounting a selected membrane in a membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) system to investigate its desalination capability. 0.92 meq/g of ion exchange capacity, 8.7 Ω.㎠ of electrical resistance, 40 kgf/ ㎠ of tensile strength, 19% of swelling ratio, 42% of water uptake, and 56.4% salt removal rate were achieved at best. VA content plays a leading role on the extent of physical properties and performance; however, MI is important for having uniform distribution of resin grains and achieving better ionic conductivity. Overall, manufacturing cost has been suppressed to 5-10% of that of homogeneous ion exchange membranes.

Probability of Nuclear Desalination for the Usage with Economical Incentives and Future Prospects

Considering the increasing demand for electricity, and the limited water resources in Egypt, adopting nuclear power plants as a dual purpose for producing electric power and fresh water has become urgent and essential. With the decision to use the nuclear power plants in Egypt, we introduce a technical demonstration for the different techniques and capabilities of NPPs that are used to supply the energy required to produce electricity fresh water by desalination. The current sources of energy which is required for the today’s desalination methods costs much, beside its pollution effects. That motivated many countries to move towards the NPPs, which are cost competitive. In this paper, various desalination processes and the most appropriate method selected are assess and evaluated. Considering the limited fresh water resources in Egypt, different techniques used as heating sources for new desalination projects in the country, like solar systems and SMRs and their cost competitiveness have been reviewed and evaluated. The potential of adopting nuclear desalination in Egypt has been discussed and evaluated from technical and economical points of view, with the emphasis on the recent desalination capabilities. The desalination techniques were assessed according to the size, type of the nuclear reactor, electrical and thermal energy capacity, based on several technical and economical criteria. From this study, it could be inferred that, RO and MSF plants, as well as hybrid systems, are considered as energy intensive processes where energy cost is a major controlling parameter in the overall cost of desalination. Oil prices instability affect to a large extent, the cost of desalination significantly, whereas NPPs offer long term availability of fuel as well as long term fuel price stability. It has also low environmental impacts compared with other conventional desalination processes.

Quantification of Aquaporin-Z reconstituted into vesicles for biomimetic membrane fabrication

Aquaporin incorporated biomimetic membranes are anticipated to offer unprecedented desalination capabilities. However, the lack of accurate methods to quantify the reconstituted aquaporin presents a huge hurdle in investigating aquaporin performance and optimizing membrane fabrication. Herein, we present three quantification methods to determine the Aquaporin-Z reconstituted into E. coli lipid vesicles: 1) nanogold labeling with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) visualization, 2) nickel labeling with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and 3) gel electrophoresis. The TEM method serves as a quick way to determine if aquaporin has been reconstituted, but is not quantitative. The numerical results from quantitative methods, ICP-MS and gel electrophoresis, correlate closely, showing that 60 ± 20% vs 66 ± 4% of Aquaporin-Z added is successfully reconstituted into vesicles respectively. These methods allow more accurate determination of Aquaporin-Z reconstituted and loss during reconstitution, with relatively commonly available equipment and without complex sample handling, or lengthy data analysis. These would allow them to be widely applicable to scientific studies of protein function in the biomimetic environment and engineering studies on biomimetic membrane fabrication.