About the Asatekin Lab
Our lab focuses on developing novel materials and systems for clean water and efficient separations, including smart polymers and membranes. Today, water scarcity affects one in three people on earth, and more than three million people die each year from water-related diseases. Membranes are an efficient, effective and green method for generating clean, safe drinking water, and for wastewater treatment to prevent the contamination of our limited water resources. They are also an energy efficient method for industrial separations, which consume 45% of process energy consumed by the chemical industry. However, in many cases, the use of membranes is prevented by low permeability, insufficient selectivity, or limited lifetime. We aim to develop the next generation of membranes that will overcome these challenges by designing these systems from the molecules up, to create nanostructured, functional systems through polymer self-assembly. Our lab’s expertise in polymer science, chemical engineering, and surface science enables us to address challenging problems through scalable approaches that leverage the power of chemistry.