Mixed Matrix Membranes for Water Purification Applications

Abstract

Membrane technology has been utilized for water purification application for a long time. Both polymeric and ceramic membranes have been center of interest for their tremendous contribution in this area. Despite their advantages, these synthetic membranes have limitations in terms of performance and durability. To meet the new demands and standards, mixed matrix membranes (MMM) have gained serious importance due to their ability to combine the features of the aforementioned membrane materials, offering better solutions in terms of performance, fouling, permeate quality and longevity. Besides such attractive features, MMMs have not yet reached sufficient maturity to challenge conventional membranes commercially. This review categorizes MMMs on its filler basis into four types; (i) inorganic filler-based MMMs, (ii) organic filler-based MMMs, (iii) biofillers-based MMMd, and (iv) hybrid filler-based MMMs. A discussion is extended to modules and cost of these membranes along with the specific applications of each type of fillers. It also identifies the issues and challenges in the MMM area and highlights the domains that remain to be investigated.

Inorganic nanoparticles incorporated in polyacrylonitrile‐based mixed matrix membranes for hydrophilic, ultrafast, and fouling‐resistant ultrafiltration

“…Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) are a new form that has appeared in the field of polymeric membranes. Hydrophilic nanoscale materials (inorganic nanoparticles, graphene oxide, modified carbon nanotubes, and hydrophilic polymer nanoparticles) are introduced into the polymeric membrane's matrix during the membrane's forming process, improving the overall hydrophilicity of the MMMs . Among these, hydrophilic inorganic nanoparticles such as SiO 2 , TiO 2 , ZrO 2 , and Al 2 O 3 are the nanomaterials most commonly used in preparing MMMs.…”

High MOF loading in mixed-matrix membranes utilizing styrene/butadiene copolymers

“…The SBS MMMs fabricated also achieve higher MOF loadings than PVDF, maximizing the active component of the MMM to unprecedented levels for this approach. This form factor can promote the direct application of MOF materials to a myriad of membrane-based technologies, such as catalytic reactors, 26 commercial separations of gas streams, 27 wastewater treatment, 28 toxic chemical sequestration, 29 and more. Moving forward, the block copolymer nature of SBS lends it to greater mechanical tunability than PVDF, through variation of the relative amounts of styrene and butadiene.…”

Polymer Nanocomposite Membranes

“…Recently, polymeric nanocomposite membranes have been widely used in various applications, such as gas separation, water purification, desalination, fuel cells, etc. [10,32,34,40,55,56]. Most of the currently used membranes are polymeric, and their production is highly developed [57], but they are usually not suitable for critical technologies, in particular for very high temperature applications [58].…”

“…Since the issue of the transport properties optimization of nanocomposite polymer membranes remains relevant to this day, there have been attempts to make some generalizations known; review papers [1,5,13,[24][25][26][27][28][29]. These studies raises general questions [1,30], but in most cases the analytical generalizations were made for solving specific problems of a separation [31][32][33][34][35][36] or other tasks including fuel cells or catalytic membrane reactors applications [37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. In general, it is necessary to highlight review articles in which information is collected on the introduction of a certain type of nanoparticles in polymer films of different morphologies, for example membranes-containing 0D to 2D nano-fillers [37,44,45].…”