Researchers create thin film polymer membranes capable of separating fluoride from chloride and other ions. Targeted ion selectivity by the filtering membranes could have important implications for water purification, environmental remediation and industrial production.

Sunlight was once thought to only fragment plastics in the marine environment into smaller particles that chemically resemble the original material and persist forever. However, scientists more recently have learned that sunlight also chemically transforms plastic into a suite of polymer-, dissolved-, and gas-phased products.

With new support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Jeffrey Rickman, a professor of materials science and engineering at Lehigh University, is developing a model to help scientists and engineers better understand and predict the impact of grain growth and evolution on the characteristics of various polycrystalline materials, ultimately to help improve the performance and…