I-Corps: High Performance Lithographically Defined Filters

世界各地的消费者越来越意识到水污染的风险，无论是独立的还是管道的。因此，越来越多的消费者需要在用水点附近处理水的系统。这种对使用点水过滤的推动正在产生对小型、经济、能够以相当低的容量支持实时需求的系统的不断增长的需求。小规模的使用点系统今天销售给背包客/徒步旅行者，应急响应人员和人道主义工作者，以及一般公众作为台面过滤装置。过滤器性能的提高以及由此产生的尺寸和成本的减少对许多这些市场来说意义重大。也许更重要的是抗堵塞（过滤器污垢）或自清洁使用点系统，这将大大降低使用的维护障碍。为了改善水过滤中的流量和过滤器寿命，该团队提出了一种用于反冲洗预过滤器的精密制造膜。所提出的碳纳米管模板微加工（CNT-M）膜将具有比市售膜过滤器高得多的孔密度和更高的自清洁性能，从而减少了系统尺寸和成本，降低了维护要求。碳纳米管- m工艺产生了具有平面顶表面和垂直均匀孔隙剖面的膜。这些孔隙促进高流速，并应显著提高反冲洗效率。碳纳米管模板微加工（CNT-M）工艺的工业实施将为其在其他有前途的应用领域的实施铺平道路，包括：高性能惯性微传感器，x射线束技术，医疗微设备和色谱分离介质。

Consumers around the globe are becoming more aware of the risks of contamination in water, whether it be freestanding or plumbed. As a result, there is growing consumer demand for systems to treat water nearer the point-of-use. This push for point-of-use water filtration is yielding a growing demand for systems that are small, economical, and capable of supporting real-time demand at fairly low volumes. Small scale point of use systems are marketed today to backpackers/hikers, emergency response personnel, and humanitarian workers, and to the general public as countertop filtration units. Increased filter performance and the resultant reductions in size and cost would be significant for many of these markets. Perhaps even more significant would be resistance to clogging (filter fouling) or self-cleaning point-of-use systems which would significantly lower the maintenance barrier to use. To improve on flow and filter lifetime in water filtration, the team proposes a precision fabricated membrane for backwash pre-filters.The proposed carbon nanotube template microfabricated (CNT-M) membranes will have a much higher pore density and increased self-cleaning performance than commercially available membrane filters allowing for reduced system size and cost and reduced maintenance requirements. The CNT-M process results in a membrane with a planar top surface and vertical uniform pore profiles. These pores facilitate high flow rates and should have significantly improved backwash efficiency. Industrial implementation of the carbon nanotube templated microfabrication (CNT-M) process will pave the way for its implementation in other promising applications areas including: high performance inertial microsensors, x-ray beam technology, medical microdevices, and chromatographic separations media.