Table 3.
Some select applications of biomimetic nanomembranes classified by fields of use.
| Application Field | Application Type |
|---|---|
| Environmental Protection | (1) Air pollution control—removal of pollutant particles and volatile compounds from airstreams (2) Wastewater treatment—removal of pollutants and recycling (3) Remediation |
| Biosensing and chemical sensing | (1) Ultrasensitive chemical, biochemical and biological sensors (2) Simultaneous sensing of multiple analytes by a single sensor |
| Toxicology, forensics and homeland defense | (1) Recognition of toxic inorganic, organic and biological agents (2) Removal of toxic agents |
| Renewable energy & power industry | (1) Fuel cells (2) Solar cells (3) Water splitting (4) Micro-power sources and microbattery arrays (5) Nuclear fuel production, purification and enrichment (6) Hydrocarbon fractionation (7) Environment-friendly fuel purification (e.g., desulfurization) |
| MEMS/NEMS | (1) Active nanofluidic devices based on ion transport (2) Self-healing micro and nanostructures (3) Stretchable and foldable devices (4) Very high frequency microoscillators and microresonators (5) Catalytic membrane microreactors (6) High temperature microreactors (7) Smart Labs on a chip |
| Molecular sieves and Separators | (1) Water, oil, gas separation from undesired ingredients (2) Removal of heavy metals (3) Reclaiming of precious materials including noble metals (4) Desalination |
| Biomedical applications | (1) Two-dimensional scaffolds for tissue regrowth (2) Biointerfaces including neural interfaces (3) Wearable and implantable artificial kidneys (4) Portable artificial lungs (5) Drugs delivery and disease control (6) Pathogenic bacteria, viruses, prions recognition and deactivation |
| Bioengineering and genomics | (1) DNA analysis/separation/replication (2) Gene sequencing, genomics (3) Cell biotechnology (4) Biomarker detection |
| Food and drinks industry | (1) Food and beverages purification (2) Potable water production through purification |
| Chemical Engineering | (1) Multicomponent gas mixtures separation (2) Gas dehydration (3) Separation of liquid chemicals (4) Chemicals analysis (5) Microfiltration, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration (6) Environmentally friendly petrochemistry |