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their energy consumption is much lower than that of thermal approaches. [3] Therefore, membrane technologies are regarded as cost-effective candidates and play an increasingly important role in the treatment of natural waters and wastewaters. [4] Membrane processes for water purification and desalination can be generally classified into microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), reverse osmosis (RO), and emerging forward osmosis (FO) according to the pore size of the membrane and the respective rejection mechanism. The materials used to fabricate the membranes cover a wide range of polymers and inorganic materials. By far, polymeric membranes are the most widespread type due to their high processability, high flexibility, and low cost. [5][6][7] Traditional asymmetric membranes that contain only one type of polymer are mainly used for UF and a few NF applications. These membranes exhibit an asymmetric porous structure that consists of a thin nano porous active layer and a microporous underlying layer. MF membranes, however, possess a relatively symmetric micro porous structure. These porous membranes are mainly fabricated by phase inversion. For RO, FO, and most NF membranes that reject nanoscale solutes, an individual nonporous, dense, and thin polyamide (PA) active layer is normally required and is deposited onto a porous support layer to ensure a high selectivity. The active layer is prepared via interfacial polymerization (IP), while the support layer can be fabricated by phase inversion. These membranes are known as thin film composite (TFC) membranes, and the layers are comprised of different polymers. TFC membranes possess superior permeability over that of first-generation cellulose acetate membranes. [8,9] Although polymeric membranes have been widely reported in scientific studies and utilized for industrial applications, they are restricted by the inherent limitations of the material, such as a permeability/selectivity trade-off and a low fouling resistance. The current ability to control the membrane structure in both molecular-level design and fabrication process is not satisfactory. [10] In the last decade, the incorporation of nanomaterials into polymeric membranes has gained considerable attention owing to the potential of the resulting materials for overcoming the above limitations. [11,12] These advanced composite membranes have shown enhanced performance with a low loading of nanoparticles (NPs), including zeolites, [13][14][15] silica, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Membrane technologies for water treatment and desalination are increasingly developed and utilized to address the global challenges of water security and supply. Membrane-based separations can produce water with desirable qualities from a wide range of water sources, such as groundwater, seawater, brackish water, and wastewater. However, the membranes, which are typically made from polymers, are still restricted by their inherent limitations, including a permeability/selectivity trade-off and a high fouling prop...

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Due to the weak interaction between DNA molecules and the inner surface of nanopores, DNA translocation is very fast, just leaving a short current drop without sufficient information to recognise the nucleotide sequence in the strand. In this paper, we propose a nanopore-nanofiber mesh hybridized structure to decelerate DNA translocation speed. Experimental results reveal that due to hydrophobic interaction between the DNA fragments and the nanofibers, the DNA moving speed can be retarded to two orders of magnitude slower. Furthermore, according to theory simulations, the additional fiber layer will reduce the electric field in the channel but elongate the capture region at the pore orifice, which will be helpful for increasing the capture rate and extending the DNA dwelling time in the meanwhile.