Developments of Carbon-Based Membrane Materials for Water Treatment

Abstract

Serious water contamination and freshwater shortage result in the urgent requirements of advanced technologies for water treatment. Membrane separation is an alternative technology to address the global water crisis. Hence the research for membrane materials with excellent properties is being undertaken vigorously. Recently, successful attempts have been made towards applying carbon-based membrane materials, such as carbon membranes, carbon nanotube membranes, carbon fiber membranes, activated carbon membranes, graphene-based membranes, etc. for achieving a high separation performance. The intrinsic properties of the carbon materials can potentially lead to enhancements in fouling mitigation, hydrophilicity, and permeate quality. This chapter provides a brief and comprehensive overview of the fabrication and synthesis mechanisms of the carbon-based membrane materials, characterization methods, and practical applications in water treatment. The major points are: 1. Carbon membranes, derived from phenolic resin and coal as precursors, have been widely used in water treatment, specifically utilizing the electrical conductivity of coal-based carbon membrane as the electrode and membrane filter simultaneously demonstrate great potential on water treatment. 2. Four types of carbon nanotube membranes are presented and indicate high separation performance due to the remarkable physicochemical properties of carbon nanotubes. 3. Carbon fiber membranes possess abundant functional groups on the surface, favoring high permeability in water treatment. 4. Activated carbon membranes are promising for organic matter removal owing to high surface area, micro–meso and macroscopic structure, and various chemical functional groups. 5. Graphene-based membranes as the novel carbon-based membrane materials with unique laminar pores are attracting more and more attentions.