Application and fabrication of nanofiltration membrane for separation of metal ions from wastewater

Nanofiltration membrane is one of the essential elements of the nanofiltration process. Nanofiltration is a highly developed membrane separation system for treatment of wastewater. The toxic metallic ion-based pollutants are the most alarming and dangerous environmental issue. The toxic metallic ion-based pollutants treatment is most concerning due to their persistence and recalcitrance in our environment. The physicochemical properties of nanofiltration membranes can be used to determine solute selectivity, antifouling properties, water penetrability, and thermal/mechanical stability, all of which have a direct impact on separation effectiveness and operating costs in the nanofiltration process. This chapter covers the most recent developments in NF membranes study. Important advances have been carried out in terms of essential considerations of the transference mechanism in NF membranes. Correspondingly, several methods have been served to prepare the better-quality NF membranes particularly via interfacial polymerization (IP) integrating with different nanomaterials, while electron beam irradiation, UV grafting/photografting, plasma method and layer-by-layer modification method also used. As the growing interest in this direction, this chapter summarized the nanofiltration membranes which are composed in different nanomaterials, such as carbonaceous nanomaterials metal-based material, and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Finally, the potential prospects for the development of progressive nanomaterials and novel approaches to nanofiltration membrane preparation are discussed.