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Review
. 2018 Jan 25;8(2):65.
doi: 10.3390/nano8020065.

Recent Advances in Nanoporous Membranes for Water Purification

Zhuqing Wang  1   2 , Aiguo Wu  3 , Lucio Colombi Ciacchi  4   5 , Gang Wei  6
Affiliations
Review

Recent Advances in Nanoporous Membranes for Water Purification

Zhuqing Wang et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

Nanoporous materials exhibit wide applications in the fields of electrocatalysis, nanodevice fabrication, energy, and environmental science, as well as analytical science. In this review, we present a summary of recent studies on nanoporous membranes for water purification application. The types and fabrication strategies of various nanoporous membranes are first introduced, and then the fabricated nanoporous membranes for removing various water pollutants, such as salt, metallic ions, anions, nanoparticles, organic chemicals, and biological substrates, are demonstrated and discussed. This work will be valuable for readers to understand the design and fabrication of various nanoporous membranes, and their potential purification mechanisms towards different water pollutants. In addition, it will be helpful for developing new nanoporous materials for quick, economic, and high-performance water purification.

Keywords: fabrication; graphene; nanoporous membrane; purification mechanism; two-dimensional materials; water pollutants; water purification.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Fabrication strategies of various nanoporous membranes: (a) Formation of a superoleophobic PAA-g-PDVF membrane by a salt-induced phase-inversion process; (b) Preparation of triple-layered thin film composite (TFC) nano-filtration membrane by interfacial polymerization; (c) Schematic of single-ion irradiation setup; and (d) Schematic of electrospinning. Picture (a) is reprinted with permission from Ref. [57]. Copyright Wiley-VCH (Weinheim, Germany), 2016. Picture (b) is reprinted with permission from Ref. [58]. Copyright Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017. Picture (c) is reprinted with permission from Ref. [59]. Copyright Beilstein-Institut, 2012. Picture (d) is reprinted with permission from Ref. [54]. Copyright Elsevier, 2015.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic illustration of the hypothesized mechanism of graphene oxide (GO) thin-film nanocomposite membrane. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [69]. Copyright Elsevier, 2016.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Hydrogenated and (b) hydroxylated graphene pores; and (c) side view of computational system investigated. Figure reprinted with permission from Ref. [35]. Copyright American Chemical Society, 2012.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mechanism of charge- and size-selective ion sieving through MXene membrane. Figure reprinted with permission from Ref. [80]. Copyright American Chemical Society, 2015.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) Chemical structure of the liquid-crystal molecule 1; (b) Self-assembled bicontinous cubic (Cubbi) structure forming ionic nanochannels of 1; (c) Schematic representation of selective rejection of anions through the Cubbi membranes. Figures reprinted with permission from Ref. [89]. Copyright Wiley-VCH, 2012.
Figure 6
Figure 6
(a) Schematic of the preparation of PAA-g-PDVF membrane; (b) photograph of the as-prepared PAA-g-PDVF membrane; (c) cross-section and (d) top-view of the membrane; (e) image of an underwater oil droplet; (f) image of a water droplet on the membrane. Figures are reprinted with permission from Ref. [57]. Copyright Wiley-VCH, 2016.
Figure 7
Figure 7
(a) Photographs of ultrathin graphene nanofiltration membranes (uGNM) coated on an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) disk and a twisted uGNM coated on a PVDF membrane; (b) the structure of the base-washed GO; (c) schematic view for possible permeation route. Figures are reprinted with permission from Ref. [34]. Copyright Wiley-VCH, 2013.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of GO-TiO2 membrane ((a) cross view; (b) top view). Figures are reprinted with permission from Ref. [99]. Elsevier, 2013.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Components of the hierarchical layer of the TiO2 nanowire ultra-filtration (UF) membrane. (A) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of TiO2 nanowires with diameter of 10 nm (TNW10); (B) TEM image of TNW10; (C) schematic profiles of the TiO2 nanowire UF membrane; (D) digital photo of the TiO2 nanowire UF membrane. Figures are reprinted with permission from Ref. [102]. Copyright Wiley-VCH, 2009.
Figure 10
Figure 10
SEM images of nanoporous membrane. (a) top surface; (b) bottom surface; (c) cross-sectional view. Figures are reprinted with permission from Ref. [104]. Copyright Wiley-VCH, 2008.
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