Incorporation of nanomaterials on the electrospun membrane process with potential use in water treatment

Abstract

Fast urbanization, economic growth, and industrialization are some sources of emerging pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and heavy metals. The regular drinking water and wastewater treatment were not designed to deal with these emerging pollutants. Membrane filtration and adsorption processes represent a potential way to deal with emerging pollutants; unfortunately, the regular commercial membranes and absorptive materials have limits in terms of flux, rejection, and antifouling properties. The electrospinning technique is a promising technology that can be used to generate membranes composed of fibers at the micro- and nanometric scales with high performance in terms of high flux, antifouling properties, good mechanical properties, and interconnected porosity. This review takes into consideration the incorporation of nanomaterials on the surface and into fibers applied to micro, ultra, nanofiltration, forward osmosis processes, as well as adsorption process for potential use in water treatment. Flux, selectivity, and antifouling were some parameters analyzed to evaluate performance.