Convergence of Nanofiber Technology for Water Industry

Abstract

Nanofiber technology has become a promising process, which is able to fabricate fibers with even less than the diameter of 100 nm that can also possess very large surface-to-volume ratio and high porosity for applying on various industries (Bae and Choi et al 2016, Bae and Choi et al 2017). Water industry is one of those, which has recently obtained a step up through nanofiber applications. At this point, utilization of nanofibers in adsorption or filtration/membrane processes has brought significant enhancement for the adsorption capacity and separation efficiency resulting in high removal capacity, higher separation flux, and lower operational energy (Fig.1).(Kenry and Lim 2017, Liang and Choi et al. 2019). For water filtration processes, membranes based on nanofiber technology are able to create an ideal pathway to construct new-generation membranes (Fig. 2), which can provide controllable pore size (around submicron range) and high porosity (e.g. over 80%) with interconnected open pores resulting in a better permeate flux than the conventionally fabricated membranes (Wang and Hsiao et al. 2016). Furthermore, nanofiber technology also provides an efficient performance for heavy metal ion atom or natural organic matter (NOM) adsorption due to its large surface area, tailored pore structure with good interconnectivity and functionality(Ding and Yu 2014). Nanofiber technology has also started to have convergence with other technologies that also can bring new perspectives to water industry. Addictive manufacturing also widely called as 3D printing is one of those, which can further contribute the nanofiber technology for obtaining high uniformity and precision (Dalton, Vaquette et al. 2013, Lee and Kim 2014, Yanar and Choi et al. 2018).