“Say: Travel through the Earth and deeply observe how God did originate the creation; then God produces the next creation; surely God has power over all things” (Qur’an 29:19-20)
Welcome and May the peace and blessings of God be upon you.
“The thing that keeps me going is why I’m doing this: that insha’Allah if this product can help one person, then it’s worth it.”
– Arsheen Allam
Remember when you wanted to make things as a kid? Meet Arsheen Allam, who made it her passion to make things that are life-changing.
What do you do?
“I’m a materials science engineer. I founded my startup company, GOLeafe, and we are producing a material called graphene. We didn’t create graphene, as there are hundreds, if not thousands, of companies and research groups making it. However, the current production methods for graphene make it one of the most expensive materials on Earth. What I’ve done utilizing my background in materials and carbon research is create a new method that is much cheaper and eco-friendly, which will allow the material to be commercialized in product applications. This is the goal: to make a more economical source of graphene. It’s a 2-dimensional material, a single atom layer of carbon.”
Why material science?
“When I was applying to college and deciding a major, I wanted to study something I could use to one day hopefully create a solution to relieve people of their pain. I took all pre-med classes, just in case I wanted to go the medical route. I wanted to build things, so I also studied engineering to have a hard science background. Materials science was more about learning mechanical properties, strengths, different chemistries of materials and what kinds of materials you can mix to achieve new properties, etc.”
“We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?” (Qur’an 21:30)
How did the water filter idea start?
“I wanted to study something to relieve pain, because growing up, I travelled back a lot to South Asia, where both my parents are from, and saw firsthand that people didn’t have basic human resources that I thought everyone while growing up in America had: water and energy. This led me to do research in water filtration technologies. My undergrad project was creating a low-cost water filter. I worked during college and into masters programs to develop the filter. It’s hard to believe I’ve now been in the carbon research world for over 10 years. We developed filters based on low-cost nano-technology. Graphene has a high surface area so it can filter more water per any unit/space. For example, it’s like having one big beach ball versus ten smalls ones. Currently, plain polymer membranes are used without graphene embedded in them, so they have to be very tightly knit to filter, which uses a tremendous amount of energy through reverse osmosis. This leads to a lot of water wastage as well. With the graphene-based filter we are developing, we can reduce both energy consumption and water wastage. The filters are longer lasting and filter out bacteria, pathogens, heavy materials, salt, among other contaminants.”
What was the process like in creating the filter?
“We went to some schools and orphanages in India after the original filter model was created. The filters worked really well for groundwater, even surface water, springs and rivers. But it was not an efficient solution for desalination. So I had to go back to the drawing board. I wanted this product to get to underserved populations. So instead of typically working at a university, I decided to work with a professor in India at IIT in Kanpur. I really enjoyed working with him. Although I am Muslim and he and his PhD students are Hindu, we all got along and were dedicated to the project. We read a research paper published by MIT about how graphene will be the breakthrough desalination solution. We had been in carbon research for a while, so thought we’d try and make a graphene-based filter. It took several years of R&D to develop a method to produce graphene out of readily available carbon sources, such as trees, grass, hay, unlike typical graphene producers who use graphite or coal as their carbon source. One day one of our batches yielded graphene! We used various microscope imaging to characterize and confirm the material. We have applied for a patent for the production process and it is currently under review with the USPTO.”
How were the setbacks in the process actually beneficial?
“Even though we had the production process, we had to get the graphene into some form of a coating material to serve as a filtering membrane. It is difficult to get it embedded into a membrane. As an early stage company, we had limited funds to work with and that forced us to get creative, which I really enjoyed. When we got stuck, we looked at the other applications of graphene. We studied it for use in energy storage and as an alternative to silicon used in solar panels. So even though it took long and we had some setbacks, we discovered and developed three product prototypes out of our material: a desalination membrane and two clean energy products. Now we are searching for and developing relationships with manufacturing partners and investors to further test the products and eventually get them to commercialization.”
“And Allah has sent down the water from the sky and therewith gives life to the earth after its death” (Qur’an 16:65)
What is the relationship between your career and your faith?
“The entire thing is based on my faith. I’ve been raised a certain way by my parents to help other people, but it comes from our faith to be good people. If we’ve been blessed with all these resources and lifestyle, we should do our part to help someone else’s life be better or easier. Ninety percent of the time, the experiments don’t work. The thing that keeps me going is why I’m doing this: that insha’Allah if this product can help one person, then it’s worth it.”
What do you want to tell people?
“I’m a huge STEM advocate. My friends call me ‘STEM,’ and make fun of me. Anytime I say anything remotely nerdy, they’ll say. ‘Okay, STEM.’ I’m proud of it. When we do Eid gift drives, I always always buy STEM gifts. You can just buy any toy, but this is FUN. I’m a huge proponent of learning about different areas of engineering, science, and tech. It sounds scary, but it’s so fun, and you can create physical things that you can use. I would encourage people at any age to explore STEM activities. STEM toys are the building blocks for future engineers and inventors.”
Source: Clipart
“Read in the name of your Lord, who created man from a clot. Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by then pen.” (Qur’an 96:1-4).
“All is born of water; all is sustained by water.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
For More Information:
GoLeafe: http://goleafe.com/
International Institute of Islamic Medicine: http://www.iiim.org/
1001 Inventions: the Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization: http://www.1001inventions.com
