We received the following message today from the research team in China in answer to John's question about the practical applications of the project.

Our discovery emphasizes the importance of the coupling effect between carbon nanotube (CNT) and water molecules inside the tube, which can enhance the diffusion of water by 300%. Recently a paper [1] published on Chemical Society Reviews reminded the importance of our work in the water desalination using CNT membranes. Researchers have done lots of work in fabricating CNT membranes [2] in lab. Thus, we expect the materials would be found in factories in the future.

[1] R. Das, C.D. Vecitis, A. Schulze, B. Cao, A.F. Ismail, X. Lu, J. Chen, S. Ramakrishna, Recent advances in nanomaterials for water protection and monitoring, Chemical Society Reviews, 46 (2017) 6946-7020.

[2] J. Ortiz-Medina, S. Inukai, T. Araki, A. Morelos-Gomez, R. Cruz-Silva, K. Takeuchi, T. Noguchi, T. Kawaguchi, M. Terrones, M. Endo, Robust water desalination membranes against degradation using high loads of carbon nanotubes, Scientific Reports, 8 (2018) 2748.

Wonderful update. Thanks much for letting us know.