Research areas:

Water desalination

Ultrathin polymer nanofilm composite membranes

Phase inversion

Interfacial polymerization 

Transport phenomenon

Nanofiltration

Molecular separation

Organic solvent stable membranes

Solvent diafiltration

Materials science

Polymer physics

Nanofluidics

Microporous and mesoporous materials

Quantum dots

Intrinsic microporous polymers

Porous organic polymers

Design of spiral-wound membrane modules

Design of small desalination plants

Key expertise:

• Fabrication of ultrathin polymer nanofilm composite membranes for desalination and molecular separation

• Fabrication of solvent-stable nanofilm membranes for the purification of APIs in pharmaceutical industries

• Large area fabrication of composite membranes and spiral-wound modules

• Design and operation automation of cross-flow separation systems with high mass transfer coefficient

• Wrinkling based measurement of the strength of ultrathin polymer film down to sub-5 nm thickness

• Measurement of the mass density of polymer film with QCM

Key achievements:

• Fabrication of the world's thinnest polyamide nanofilm (4.5 nm thick) composite membrane for desalination

• Fabrication of nanofiltration membranes with ultrahigh selectivity for selective separation of SO42- from Cl-

• Solvent stable thin film composite membranes for molecular separation