MXene Sorbents for Removal of Urea from Dialysate: A Step toward the Wearable Artificial Kidney

End stage renal disease currently affects more than 3 million people worldwide. Dialysis or a kidney transplant are the only alternatives for these patients to avoid death, but only few are fortunate to have a kidney transplant, and the vast majority depend on dialysis for the rest of their lives. The wearable artificial kidney can deliver continuous ambulatory dialysis for more than 3 million patients with end-stage renal disease. The efficient removal of urea is a key challenge in miniaturizing the device and making it light and small enough for practical use. Carbon dioxide is usually vented into the atmosphere, and the ammonia is adsorbed by zirconium hydrophosphate. MXenes’ layered structure can be intercalated and deintercalated with water and organic molecules, such as hydrazine, urea, and cationic dyes. The Langmuir isotherm theory assumes monolayer coverage of adsorbate over a homogeneous adsorbent surface.