Current advances on nanofiber membranes for water purification applications

Electrospun nanofiber membranes have many application potentials, including air/water filtration, gas storage, sensors/electronics, and healthcare/cosmetics. The recent advances of these membranes for water filtration applications, including microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, and membrane distillation, are reviewed here. The high porosity, adjustable pore size/pore size distribution, large range of materials choice, and available surface functionalization have provided the flexibility to tailor-design the membranes for numerous existing and emerging applications. Recent advances in electrospinning technology have further offered a variety of pathway for scale-up production of electrospun membranes, realizing its potential for water purification.