Fabrication and Potential Applications of Nanoporous Membranes for Separation Processes

Abstract

Innovative membrane processes are considered a very important segment of controllable separation processes, such as water treatment, gas separation and organic purification. One of the challenges in membrane technology is the challenge of selecting and fabricating membrane material for excellent selectivity and good permeability for selected particle sizes. The utmost operational challenge perturbing the performance of membrane technology is membrane fouling which occur as a result of insoluble materials covering the membrane surface, leading to a reduction in water quality. Other factors perturbing the performance of membrane technology are energy usage and greenhouse emission. Furthermore, the necessity to react to climate change is another major challenge for membrane technology. An excellent membrane should have high stiffness in order to withstand high pressures applied, large surface area and micro- or nanopore structures for excellent selectivity and good permeability for selected particle sizes. The transport of ions and fluid at molecular level, controlled at the nanometer-scale using membranes provide substantial capacity for high selectivity and high fluxes. The potential applications of nanoporous membranes are strongly subjected to the chemical and physical properties of a membrane material. The effective pores size, porosity, uniformity, thickness, surface chemistry and morphology also have influence on membrane separation performance. We reviewed the fabrication and potential applications of nanoporous membranes for separation processes, operational challenge, energy usage, greenhouse emission and effect of climate change. Thus, the major points, include: (1) fabrication methods of nanoporous membranes for excellent selectivity and good permeability for selected particle sizes, (2) Theoretical modeling and simulations of nanoporous membranes, (3) potential applications of nanoporous membranes, (4) the recent discovery of novel nanoporous membrane structures aimed at overcoming the challenge of fouling, (5) the challenge of energy usage, (6) addressing climate change as a contributing factor to the challenges of water treatment industry and membrane technology.