A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study is the first to describe an electrochemical strategy to capture, concentrate and destroy mixtures of diverse chemicals known as PFAS -- including the increasingly prevalent ultra-short-chain PFAS -- from water in a single process.

A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study is the first to describe an electrochemical strategy to capture, concentrate and destroy mixtures of diverse chemicals known as PFAS -- including the increasingly prevalent ultra-short-chain PFAS -- from water in a single process. This new development is poised to address the growing industrial problem of contamination with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing.

A previous U. of I. study showed that short- and long-chain PFAS can be removed from water using electrochemically driven adsorption, referred to as electrosorption, but this method is ineffective for ultra-short-chain molecules because of their small size and different chemical properties. The new study, led by Illinois chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Xiao Su, combines a desalination filtration technology, called redox electrodialysis, with electrosorption in a single device to address the problems associated with capturing the complete PFAS size spectrum.

The study findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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With the construction of semiconductor factories expected to rise, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are working to get ahead of the PFAS pollution issues associated with the fabrication process. (Photo Credit: Lehava Center Qiryat Gat)