Resonant osmotic diodes for voltage-induced water filtration across composite membranes | Nature Materials

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Nanofluidics have led to the discovery of unconventional properties for water and ion transport at the nanoscale, but key challenges remain in their large-scale implementation. Here we report an osmotic resonance across macroscopic composite membranes made by the assembly of microporous and mesoporous layers, taking root from the rectified osmotic transport in nanopores. This osmotic diode induces ionic sieving and continuous fast macroscopic electro-osmotic transport. This is the basis for a versatile approach for water purification, by which fresh water is driven across a composite material under an a.c. electric field. Water flow is driven within the mesoporous layer, while selectivity is achieved within the microporous layer. The maximal rectified, diode-like water flow is found to be in the hertz range. Building on analytical predictions, we show that a conversion factor of up to ~15 equivalent bars per applied volt can be reached using appropriate materials.

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Source data are provided with this paper. These data are also available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15277891 (ref. 44).

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We thank V. Pichon, P. Simon and P.-L. Tabernat for fruitful discussions of water analysis techniques and capacitive electrode behaviours; B. Bresson for technical assistance regarding SEM imaging of membranes; B. Cinquin and the technological platform of the Institut Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (IPGG) for the availability of UV–visible absorbance equipment; and A. Grimaud for the availability of XRD equipment. L.B. acknowledges funding from the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Programme and European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant, agreement no. 101071937-n-AQUA. J.P.-C. acknowledges funding from Community of Madrid programme no. 2020-T2/IND-20074.

Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, ENS, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, Paris, France

Soufiane Abdelghani-Idrissi, Lucie Ries, Geoffrey Monet, Javier Perez-Carvajal, Zacharie Pilo, Paulina Sarnikowski, Alessandro Siria & Lydéric Bocquet

Laboratoire Géomatériaux et Environnement, Université Gustave Eiffel, Marne-la-Vallée, France

Soufiane Abdelghani-Idrissi

Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC-ICMM), Madrid, Spain

Javier Perez-Carvajal

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L.B. conceived the project. L.R., Z.P., P.S. and J.P.-C. developed the membranes, and S.A.-I. developed the experimental set-ups with input from L.B. and A.S. and S.A.-I. performed the experiments with inputs from Z.P. and P.S. G.M. performed the numerical simulations. L.B. developed the theoretical description with input from S.A.-I., and S.A.-I. and L.B. wrote the paper, with input from all authors.

Correspondence to Lydéric Bocquet.

CNRS has filed patent applications on the technologies described in this manuscript with some co-authors listed as inventors (WO2021156393A1, EP4410407A1). Based on these patents, the start-up Ilion Water Technologies was founded in February 2025, with L.R., Z.P., P.S. and L.B. as cofounders.

Nature Materials thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work

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Supplementary Figs. 1–19, Tables 1–5, captions for Videos 1–4, text and refs. 44–47.

Typical a.c. EO filtration of a rhodamine 6G solution using a PC + MoS2 membrane. The experiment is performed with a 10 V amplitude at resonant frequency. The speed is ×64. The initial rhodamine concentration of the feed syringe is 0.055 mM, and the final measured concentration in the feed side of the cell is ~10 times the initial feed concentration, as expected by the mass balance. On the permeate side, we do not report any increase of rhodamine concentration.

Typical a.c. EO experiment at 10 V amplitude and a low frequency (2.5 mHz) using a PC (100 nm) + GO membrane. The asymmetry of the EO flow rate is clearly visible. The speed is ×64.

Typical a.c. EO experiment at 10 V amplitude and a low frequency (2.5 mHz) using a pristine PC (100 nm) membrane. The EO flow rate is clearly symmetric and not rectified in this situation. The speed is ×64.

Typical a.c. EO filtration of a rhodamine 6G solution using a PC (200 nm) + GO membrane. The experiment is performed with a 5 V amplitude at 0.1 Hz. The filtered volume is 10 ml. The speed is ×480. The initial rhodamine concentration of the feed syringe is 0.05 mM in a 10 ml water volume with 10−3 M NaCl. On the permeate side, we do not report any increase of rhodamine concentration.

Source data for results in Fig. 2.

Source data for results in Fig. 3.

Source data for results in Fig. 4.

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Abdelghani-Idrissi, S., Ries, L., Monet, G. et al. Resonant osmotic diodes for voltage-induced water filtration across composite membranes. Nat. Mater. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02257-z

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Received: 24 November 2023

Accepted: 02 May 2025

Published: 11 June 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02257-z

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