Massachusetts Institute of Technology

University of Central Florida Research Foundation Inc

Daosheng S Deng

Yoel Fink

Ayman F Abouraddy

Martin Zdenek Bazant

EthelMae Victoria Dydek

Ali Mani

Steven G Johnson

Esmaeil Banaei

Soroush Shabahang

Guangming Tao

Joshua J Kaufman

Nicholas D Orf

Xiangdong Liang

A fiber is provided, including a cladding material that is disposed along a longitudinal-axis fiber length. A plurality of spherical particles are disposed as a sequence along a longitudinal line parallel to the longitudinal fiber axis in at least a portion of the fiber length, and include a spherical particle material that is interior to the fiber cladding material and different than the fiber cladding material. To produce particles, a drawn fiber, having a longitudinal-axis fiber length and including at least one fiber core that has a longitudinal core axis parallel to the longitudinal fiber axis and that is internally disposed to at least one outer fiber cladding layer along the fiber length, is heated for a time that is sufficient to cause a fiber core to break-up into droplets sequentially disposed along the fiber core axis. Fiber cooling solidifies droplets into spherical particles interior to fiber cladding.

In-fiber particle generation

In a fiber there is provided a fiber matrix material having a fiber length; and an array of isolated in-fiber filaments that extend the fiber length. The in-fiber filaments are disposed at a radius in a cross section of the fiber that is a location of a continuous filament material layer in a drawing preform of the fiber. As a result, there is provided a fiber matrix material having a fiber length; and a plurality of isolated fiber elements that are disposed in the fiber matrix, extending the fiber length, where the plurality is of a number greater than a number of isolated domains in a drawing preform of the fiber.

In-fiber filament production

A liquid electrolyte can be desalinated and purified using a system that includes a first electrode and a configuration selected from (a) a second electrode and at least one distinct ion-selective boundary and (b) a second electrode that also serves as the ion-selective boundary. The ion-selective boundary is contained in the liquid conduit adjacent to a porous medium that defines pore channels filled with the liquid and that have a surface charge, and the charge of the ion-selective boundary and the surface charge of the pore channels share the same sign. A liquid including at least one charged species flows through the pore channels, forming a thin diffuse electrochemical double layer at an interface of the liquid and the charged surface of the pore channels. A voltage differential is applied between the electrodes across the porous medium to draw ions in the liquid to the electrodes to produce brine at the electrodes and to create a shock in the dissolved-ion concentration in the bulk volume of the liquid within the pore channels, wherein a depleted zone with a substantially reduced concentration of dissolved ions forms in the liquid bulk volume between the shock and the ion-selective boundary.

Desalination and purification system

Method and apparatus for desalination and purification

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Daosheng S Deng