Using soap to remove micropollutants from water

Imagine millions of soapy sponges the size of human cells that can clean water by soaking up contaminants. This simplistic model is used to describe technology that chemical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have recently developed to remove micropollutants from water—a concerning, worldwide problem.

Patrick Doyle, the Robert T Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering, PhD student Devashish Pratap Gokhal, and undergraduate Ian Chen recently published their research on micropollutant removal in the journal ACS Applied Polymer Materials. The research project is funded by MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) through a 2022 J-WAFS Solutions Grant and previously through a 2019 Seed Grant.