Progress and Perspective of Antifouling, Pressure Driven, Flat-Sheet Nanocomposite, Polymeric Membranes in Water Treatment

Abstract

Membrane filtration, especially based on the size exclusion phenomenon, has long been established due to its abilities to addressing the growing demands of the clean water of the world’s population. However, widespread applications of the membranes face several challenges including chemical vulnerability, thermal deterioration, and biological degradation of the membranes that transpire while recovering the membrane flux after fouling. Therefore, developing antifouling membranes for water treatment purposes immensely increased in the past few years and inorganic nanoparticles played a significant role in this era. By considering the great potential of nanoparticles in the field of developing robust and small foot-print membranes, this study reviews the application of nanoparticles in pressure driven flat-sheet membranes and their impact on membrane characteristics and performance. It has been demonstrated that the application of nanoparticles has greatly improved the water permeability and antifouling potential of the membrane without compromising the selectivity of the membranes.