New Design Routes for Polymeric Composite Nanofiltration Membranes with High Performance

Separation and purification processes play an extraordinary role in the modern industries, where they comprise 40-70% of both capital and operational costs. The ultimate goal of separation technologies is the precise and rapid separation of different molecules from aqueous solutions, organic solutions and gas mixtures. Membrane-based separation technology, emerging as a promising process to fulfil any separation requirement, has aroused huge interest in recent years. Starting in the late 1960s, membrane-based separation processes have been gradually implemented at commercial scale, and have provided feasible alternatives to conventional purification and separation processes.Nevertheless, most of these membranes are constrained by a trade-off relationship between permeability and selectivity, high fouling propensity and limited life span and inferior stability, which ultimately restricts the development of membrane technologies. Nanomaterials are especially effective in conjunction with membrane technology due to their massive specific surface areas along with their distinctively tunable chemical, physical, and mechanical properties. 2D nanosheets with large lateral area and low thickness are the most appropriate building blocks for ultrathin, ultra-permeable, precise molecular sieving membranes. Graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets, which contain carboxyl, hydroxyl, and epoxide functional groups, are one such nanomaterial that has emerged as an optimal starting material for making uniform, stable, and functional nanocomposite membranes with high chemical stability, strong hydrophilicity, and excellent antifouling properties. Porous crystalline materials classified as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have also drawn widespread attention because of their outstanding characteristics: exceptionally high surface areas, large pore volumes, high degrees of crystallinity, and alterable pore functionalities. Derived from the rational design concept, my study attempts to design some novel hybrid nanosheet that integrates the virtues of GO and MOFs (or other materials) and apply them in the fabrication of antimicrobial thin film nanocomposite (TFN) nanofiltration.nrpages: 183status: publishe