Recent advances of nanomaterial-based membrane for water purification

Abstract Nanomaterial and nanotechnology have emerged as the best possible methods to develop high-performance separation membrane and help solve the expected global water crisis. These nanomaterial-based membranes, including nanoparticles, nanofibers, two-dimensional layer materials, and other nanostructured nanomaterials and their composites, exhibit extraordinary permeation properties as well as some additional properties (antifouling, antibacterial, photodegradation, etc.), opening a new avenue to ultra-fast and highly selective membranes for water purification. An overview of current commercial membrane history and the advances of nanomaterial-based membrane were briefly summarized. The focus was on the strategies of nanomaterial-based membrane structure design and latest ground-breaking studies in this area. At the end, the current challenges and the possible toxicity of nanomaterials were simply discussed. Diversity in constituent, structure and modification all make the nanomaterial-based membrane possible to be an ideal separation membrane in future.