Catalytic membranes for water treatment: Perspectives and challenges

The imperative importance of water treatment for clean water supply and water pollution control necessitates innovative approaches to address emerging challenges. Catalytic membranes, with their unique amalgamation of separation efficiency and pollutant degradation capability present a transformative avenue for removal of micropollutants in water treatment. This synergetic integration can effectively transcend conventional technological limitations by mitigating the membrane fouling problem, enhancing the degradation of emerging organic pollutants, curtailing secondary contamination, and circumventing the trade-off phenomena inherent in membrane filtration processes. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the recent strides in the development of catalytic membranes, including the membrane materials, the types and positions of catalyst coated on the membrane, as well as the process analysis and theoretical investigations on the mechanisms involved. The treatment performance of catalytic membranes on various types of contaminants in water, such as organic compounds, microorganisms, and heavy metals, are compared and discussed. Finally, the promising prospects and concurrent challenges facing the catalytic membrane technology are analyzed. By delineating these factors for the advancements, the paper charts a course for the continued development and potential application of catalytic membranes for water purification and wastewater treatment. © 2024 The Authors.