The purification of various water resources, from rainwater to wastewater, is a high-energy process. So, what if electricity could actually be generated during the process? A research team has developed a multifunctional membrane that can simultaneously generate electricity while purifying wastewater into drinking water.

不管是雨水还是废水，各种水资源的净化都是一个高能量的过程。那么，如果在这个过程中真的可以发电呢？一个研究小组开发了一种多功能膜，可以在将废水净化为饮用水的同时发电。

Scientists from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology’s （KIST） Electronic Materials Research Centre and Myongji University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering have partnered to develop an advanced membrane that can simultaneously provide drinking water and generate continuous electricity from various water resources, such as sewerage/wastewater, seawater and groundwater.

韩国科学技术研究院电子材料研究中心、以及明治大学材料科学与工程系的科学家们，合作开发了一种先进的膜，该膜可以在提供饮用水的同时，持续利用各种水资源（例如污水/废水、海水和地下水）发电。

The “sandwich-like” membrane comprises a porous membrane that filters water at the bottom and a conductive polymer that generates electricity at the top. It is designed to purify wastewater by controlling the direction of the water flow. Water flowing perpendicularly to the membrane generates direct current by the movement of ions along the horizontal direction. The membrane can reject more than 95% of the contaminants of sizes less than 10 nm （one hundred-millionth of a metre）。 Hence, microplastics and heavy metal particles in wastewater can be removed, and continuous electricity can be generated for more than 3 h with only 10 ?l （microlitres） of water.

这种“三明治状”的膜，由底部过滤水的多孔膜和顶部发电的导电聚合物组成。通过控制水流的方向来净化废水。水垂直于膜上流动时，离子沿水平方向运动产生直流电。这种膜可以滤除95%以上<10纳米（一米的亿分之一）的污染物。因此，废水中的微塑料和重金属颗粒都可以被去除，并且仅用10?l（微升）水就可以连续发电3小时以上。

The membrane has a high potential to be commercialised as it can be manufactured using a simple printing process without size restrictions. The research team is currently conducting follow-up research to generate electricity while improving the water quality of wastewater to the level of drinking water by developing the membrane for an actual factory.

该膜具有很高的商业化潜力，因为它可以使用简单的印刷工艺制造，且没有尺寸限制。研究团队目前正在进行后续研究，通过将膜应用于实体工厂，在发电的同时，将废水的水质提高到饮用水的水平。

“As a novel technology that can solve water shortage problem and produce ecofriendly energy simultaneously, it also has great potential applications in the water quality management system and emergency power system,” said Dr. Ji-Soo Jang from KIST.

韩国科学技术研究院的张智秀博士说：“这是一种既能解决缺水问题，又能生产环保能源的新技术，在水质管理系统和应急电力系统中，也有很大的应用潜力。”