Author: The Szekely Group

🚨 Revolutionizing Energy Efficiency in Chemical Separations! We’re thrilled to share our latest open access research 🔓, just out in Nature Energy!

Our paradigm-shifting hybrid modeling approach combines cutting-edge machine learning with mechanistic insights, unlocking the potential to…
🔋 slash energy use and CO₂ emissions by up to 90% in pharmaceutical purifications;
🌎 achieve 40% energy reduction overall in chemical separations; and
💡 enable membrane technology to enhance up to 74% of chemical separations.

We analyzed a staggering 7.1 million scenarios across a wide range of application domains to guide sustainable technology choices in the chemical industry.

👏 A huge congratulations to the team:
Gergő Ignácz 🤖📊 – The Robot, who trained the AI
Aron Kristof Beke ⚙️⚡ – The Energizer, who powered the separations
Viktor Toth ⚗️🥼 – The Chemist, who cooked the drugs

👨‍💻 Dive into the future of energy-efficient separations here if you want to read the article, or listen to an AI-generated podcast:

Read the story behind the article in the KAUST Discovery magazine published under ‘Slashing industrial emissions using a hybrid model approach‘.

Read the commentary by Professor Michael Tsapatsis from Johns Hopkins University under ‘Facilitating decision making‘ published in the News & Views section of Nature Energy.

🌐 Use our online open access tools to enhance your separations at the OSN Database: www.OSNdatabase.com

Congratulations to Nawader Alqadhi for passing her PhD defense at KAUST in July 2024. Many thanks to their committee members, namely Profs Pascal Saikaly and NorEddine Ghaffour from KAUST and Prof Christopher Fellows from the University of New England in Australia and the Saudi Water Authority. Hard work always pays off. You nailed your thesis defense! Wishing you all the best for your future career!

It was a pleasure to talk about our mycelium-based  membranes with Lewis Vaughan Jones through a live BBC News interview. Good to see that our research has interest beyond academia. 📺

Thanks to Joyce, my PhD alumni, who developed the membranes, and BBC for the opportunity!

The research article is open access, enjoy!

Here is the JMCA front cover for th article:

Image credit: Ivan Gromicho @KAUST

Check out our new article on biobased interpenetrating polymer network membranes for sustainable molecular sieving. The article was selected for the cover of ACS Nano. We developed a solely biobased interpenetrating polymer network membrane. Congrats to all the contributors in my team, namely Joyce, Diana, Aron and Rifan, as well as our collaborators from the Schwingenschlogl group!

The interface engineering synergistically combined natural latex and agarose.🌱 nanoIR and cryo-SEM revealed unique features of the membranes. The nanofiltration membranes demonstrated excellent solvent resistance and molecular sieving properties under harsh conditions.

The membranes were successfully used for pharmaceutical purification, 💉 and they removed impurities below the threshold level of toxicological concern. The biodegradability of the membranes enable an environmentally friendly end-of-life treatment. ♻️

Image credit: Ana Bigio @KAUST

Our articles were featured on the front cover of 3 journals in 2023. It was a fun and creative process to design these journal covers with our talented illustrators at KAUST. 🎨 All articles are open access.

Magical mushrooms turn membranes green! 🍄 The increasing demand for effective oil–water separation materials has encouraged the exploration of sustainable and ecofriendly solutions. We investigated the surface engineering of a superamphiphilic, self-growing fibrous Janus membranes derived from mycelium. Check our the article and the KAUST Discovery story if you want to look behind the scenes.

Carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes, fabricated via pyrolysis, are attracting attention owing to their stability under harsh environments, including high temperatures, organic media, and extreme pH. We demonstrated nanodomain control in CMS membranes via nanomaterial footprinting using different fullerenols. 🔥 Congrats, Rifan and Mahmoud! Read the open access article!

Check out our article on explainable machine learning for unraveling solvent effects in polyimide organic solvent nanofiltration membranes published in Advanced Membranes. 🤖 The back cover can be found here. Our approach helps understand and visualize the underlying effects of atoms and functional groups altering the rejection. Congratulations to Gergo and Nawader!

Image credit: Ivan Gromicho, Ana Bigio, Hassan A. Tahini @KAUST