Recent progress and future prospects in development of advanced materials for nanofiltration

Nanofiltration (NF) has emerged as a potentially superior and cost-effective way to remove sediments, charged particles, chemical effluents, bacteria and other pathogens in addition to removal of toxins like arsenic or impurities such as oils. Important properties intrinsic to NF membranes include high permeation to monovalent ions, low permeation to divalent ions and higher flux than reverse osmosis membranes. In addition, NF membranes offer advantages over other membranes due to increased reliability and integrity, producing longer cycle times and hence lower costs. Due to these characteristics, NF membranes have been used in a wide range of applications, including water treatment, agri-food, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. In this review, we present some of the most recent and impactful advances in NF area, detailing new membrane materials and processes as well as their new potential applications. The future developments of NF uses, involving new 2-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, such as graphene, graphene oxide, boron nitride (BN) and atomic layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), are also discussed.