Materials Used in Membranes for Water Purification and Recycling

Abstract

In this chapter, the materials that can be used to fabricate membranes for water purification and recycling are briefly reviewed. Owing to its high effectiveness, freedom from chemical addition, simple system configuration and small footprint, membrane separation or membrane filtration has increasingly become the choice for water treatment technology and will continue to do so in the future. Materials for membrane fabrication can be classified into organic and inorganic. Base organic or polymeric materials that are commonly used to make pressure-driven membranes, including microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis, or electrical-driven membranes, such as ion-exchange membranes, are presented. Subsequently, polymer-based composite membranes consisting of two or more different kinds of polymers are discussed. Then, surface modification methods with functional materials to improve the performance of polymeric membranes or augment those base membranes with new properties are reviewed. Finally, inorganic materials and methods for inorganic membrane fabrication are briefly introduced.