Desalination technologies, which remove solutes from water, are essential to the purification of water for agricultural and industrial purposes and for potable use. While a variety of desalination technologies exist, their performance and durability need improvements to meet future clean water demands. This challenge is particularly complex as a variety of feed water sources exists, which contain various amounts of salt, dissolved organic matter, suspended particulates, and other contaminants. Hence, predictive knowledge of the underlying physics and chemistry at the atomic and molecular scale is crucial for designing improved desalination materials and processes. In this Perspective, we outline how advanced characterization techniques, including X-ray, neutron, electron-based, and positron-based methods can be advantageously applied to water desalination technologies to provide detailed molecular insight, especially when combined with computational modeling. We summarize some of the scientific challenges in two prominent desalination techniques, membrane reverse osmosis and capacitive deionization, and lay out some specific approaches toward solving these challenges. With these developments, we anticipate that the use of advanced characterization can help advance the field of water desalination in much the same way that these have aided progress in energy storage and conversion science over the last decades.

从水中去除溶质的脱盐技术对于农业和工业用途以及饮用水的净化是必不可少的。尽管存在各种脱盐技术，但它们的性能和耐用性仍需要改进，以满足未来的清洁水需求。由于存在各种含多种盐，溶解有机物，悬浮颗粒和其他污染物的给水源，因此这一挑战特别复杂。因此，对于原子和分子尺度的基础物理和化学的预测知识对于设计改进的脱盐材料和工艺至关重要。在此透视图中，我们概述了先进的表征技术，包括X射线，中子，基于电子的，基于正电子的方法可以有利地应用于水脱盐技术，以提供详细的分子信息，特别是与计算模型结合时。我们总结了两种主要的海水淡化技术（膜反渗透和电容去离子）中的一些科学挑战，并提出了解决这些挑战的一些具体方法。随着这些发展，我们期望使用先进的特性可以帮助推进海水淡化领域的发展，就如同过去几十年来这些技术在能源存储和转化科学方面的进步一样。膜反渗透和电容去离子，并提出了解决这些挑战的一些具体方法。随着这些发展，我们期望使用先进的特性可以帮助水淡化领域的发展，就如同过去几十年来这些技术在能源存储和转化科学方面的进步一样。膜反渗透和电容去离子，并提出了解决这些挑战的一些具体方法。随着这些发展，我们期望使用先进的特性可以帮助推进海水淡化领域的发展，就如同过去几十年来这些技术在能源存储和转化科学方面的进步一样。