Membrane-based nanoconfined heterogeneous catalysis for water purification: A critical review✰

Quang Viet Ly; Lele Cui; Muhammad Bilal Asif; Waris Khan; Long D Nghiem; Yuhoon Hwang; Zhenghua Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2023.119577

Membrane-based nanoconfined heterogeneous catalysis for water purification: A critical review^✰

Water Res. 2023 Feb 15:230:119577. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.119577. Epub 2023 Jan 5.

Authors

Quang Viet Ly¹, Lele Cui², Muhammad Bilal Asif³, Waris Khan⁴, Long D Nghiem⁵, Yuhoon Hwang⁶, Zhenghua Zhang⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Environmental Engineering & Nano-Technology, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Urban Water Recycling and Environmental Safety, Tsinghua-Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Department of Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, 01811 Seoul, Republic of Korea.
² Institute of Environmental Engineering & Nano-Technology, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Urban Water Recycling and Environmental Safety, Tsinghua-Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
³ Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center (AMPMC), Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Urban Water Recycling and Environmental Safety, Tsinghua-Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁵ Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo NSW 2007, Australia.
⁶ Department of Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, 01811 Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁷ Institute of Environmental Engineering & Nano-Technology, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Urban Water Recycling and Environmental Safety, Tsinghua-Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China; School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. Electronic address: zhenghua.zhang@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn.

PMID: 36638735
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.119577

Abstract

Progress in heterogeneous advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) is hampered by several issues including mass transfer limitation, limited diffusion of short-lived reactive oxygen species (ROS), aggregation of nanocatalysts, and loss of nanocatalysts to treated water. These issues have been addressed in recent studies by executing the heterogeneous AOPs in confinement, especially in the nanopores of catalytic membranes. Under nanoconfinement (preferably at the length of less than 25 nm), the oxidant-nanocatalyst interaction, ROS-micropollutant interaction and diffusion of ROS have been observed to significantly improve, which results in enhanced ROS yield and mass transfer, improved reaction kinetics and reduced matrix effect as compared to conventional heterogenous AOP configuration. Given the significance of nanoconfinement effect, this study presents a critical review of the current status of membrane-based nanoconfined heterogeneous catalysis system for the first time. A succinct overview of the nanoconfinement concept in the context of membrane-based nanofluidic platforms is provided to elucidate the theoretical and experimental findings related to reaction kinetics, reaction mechanisms and molecule transport in membrane-based nanoconfined AOPs vs. conventional AOPs. In addition, strategies to construct membrane-based nanoconfined catalytic systems are explained along with conflicting arguments/opinions, which provides critical information on the viability of these strategies and future research directions. To show the desirability and applicability of membrane-based nanoconfined catalysis systems, performance governing factors including operating conditions and water matrix effect are particularly focused. Finally, this review presents a systematic account of the opportunities and technological constraints in the development of membrane-based nanoconfined catalytic platform to realize effective micropollutant elimination in water treatment.

Keywords: Catalytic membranes; Density functional theory; Micropollutants; Nanoconfined catalysis; Reactive oxygen species; Water pollution.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Catalysis
Oxidation-Reduction
Reactive Oxygen Species
Water Pollutants, Chemical*
Water Purification* / methods

Substances

Reactive Oxygen Species
Water Pollutants, Chemical