US Patent Issued to Northwestern University on May 27 for "Assembly of random copolymer polyelectrolyte complexes for removal of contaminants from water" (Illinois Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,312,262, issued on May 27, was assigned to Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.).

"Assembly of random copolymer polyelectrolyte complexes for removal of contaminants from water" was invented by Jeremy Wang (Evanston, Ill.), Monica Olvera de la Cruz (Wilmette, Ill.) and John M. Torkelson (Skokie, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods for removing contaminants from aqueous media using polyelectrolyte complexes having a heterogeneous charge distribution are provided. The polyelectrolyte complexes are formed from an amphiphilic anionic random copolymer and a cationic random copolymer are provided. The polyelectrolyte complexes absor...