A ‘miracle’ membrane to distil alcohol

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An Indian scientist has hit international headlines for developing a graphene-based membrane being touted as a miracle material in distilling alcohol.

Twenty-nine-year-old Dr.Rahul Nair who headed the research at University of Manchester in the UK is a native of Kuttamperoor - a sleepy village in Alappuzha district, Kerala.

Rahul's research team, interestingly, also included Prof Andre Geim, Nobel Prize winner in Physics for 2010. The team created the membrane from graphene oxide - a chemical derivative of graphene to distil alcohol.

A paper named 'Unimpeded permeation of water through helium-leak-tight graphene-based membranes', published on Friday in the Science Journal, says that the miracle material blocks passage of gases and liquids (vacuum-tight) but it lets water through them.

“We did all works as per the instruction of Prof. Geim who commented on the study that the invention of membranes was so unusual that it could make a new move to the scientific innovation being made by Manchester scientists”, Rahul told Deccan Chronicle via Internet from UK.

He also said that the team in the university created membranes from a chemical derivative of graphene called graphene oxide. He also asserted that even the most sensitive equipment was unable to detect air or any other gas, including helium, to leak through as a metal container was sealed with the membrane.

The team including H. Wu, P. Jayaram (also Indian), V. Grigorieva and A Geim, took almost two years to complete the study.

Rahul is the third son of Raveendran Nair (late) and Rama Devi, natives of Mavelikkara. One of his older brothers works in Kuwait while the other is a school teacher in Pattom in Thiruvananthapuram.
Rahul who studied at the SKV High School till Class X, completed his BSc (Physics) from S.B.College, Changanassery in 2003. Later, he did his MSc from the School of Pure and Applied Physics, MG University in the year 2005.

Between 2005 and 2006, he also worked as project assistant at IISC Bangalore under Professor A.K.Sood. It was in 2007 he left for UK to pursue his PhD at Manchester University.

It was in November last he visited his village Kuttamperoor.