Membranes are very fine filters that we use for example to clean drinking water, to capture CO2, but also to purify blood in kidney dialysis. Membranes are increasingly used in the chemical industry to be able to separate chemicals in an energy-efficient way.

Membrane technology is therefore a wonderful technology, but did you know that membranes, the basis of membrane technology, are nearly always made with large amounts of toxic and environmentally unfriendly solvents. In my research group, we have developed a new method whereby we can make membranes completely in water. In this way we can already make very open membranes, for example to remove bacteria, we can make very dense membranes with which we can, for example, separate gases. But this new way of making membranes also enables very new membranes with which we can remove medicine residues from water in a very efficient way so that we can guarantee perfectly clean drinking water.

With this new method to make membranes, we have a method that can create even purer water and at the same time make membrane technology the beautiful technology that it should be.