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Investigation of the dielectric properties of nanofiltration membranes

There is significant debate as to the exact nature of the separating mechanisms of nanofiltration membranes, particularly dielectric exclusion. This paper reports the findings from an international collaboration to investigate this phenomenon and proposes that a simplistic description based on the Born theory of ion solvation is remarkably accurate. The work illustrates that simplistic descriptions of nanofiltration can have impact in the ab initio design, optimisation and scale up of industrial separation processes. A review comment stated ‘the scientific approach adopted in this study is rigorous and highlights the very important role of modelling nanofiltration processes’.