Activities of the Water Treatment Project in Aqua Innovation Center at Shinshu University

Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology has been developed well since half century ago. Because of new threats like global warming and increasing clean water demand in developing countries for economic growth, new challenges on the conventional water supply systems, making it lower energy consumption for system operation and more robust membranes technology have been demanded. Nanocarbons such as carbon nanotubes have been a leading material of the emerging nanotechnology, and have contributed to environment and energy era. Nanocarbons are defined as carbon materials with innovative performances by controlling their structure in nanometer scale. We have been working to apply such advanced nanocarbons to form a thin composite as active layer for RO membranes and also intrinsic nanocarbon membranes by structure controlled diamond–like carbon (DLC) as an inorganic membrane. In the present review, CNT/PA nanocomposite membranes, nitrogen doped DLC membranes and graphene/graphene oxide composite membranes are demonstrated as new nanocarbon–based membranes with antifouling/chlorine resistant robust performances. Theoretical approaches based on computational chemistry have been done to explain these specific performances of nanocarbon membranes. We hope these new membranes and the related science can contribute to breakthrough for beyond the well–developed conventional membrane technology for the era of water and nanotechnology.