Design, Preparation and Application of Nanocomposite Membranes

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Membrane Fabrication and Characterization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 789

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Agricultural Research Council-Vegetable, Industrial and Medicinal Plants (ARC-VIMP), Roodeplaat, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Interests: analytical chemistry; chromatography; water quality; separation
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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2006, South Africa
Interests: advanced membranes; nanomaterials; environmental chemistry; mine wastewater treatment
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Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, University of Fort Hare, Alice 5700, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Interests: analytical chemistry; nanomaterials; membrane separation; water quality

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Compounds such as pharmaceutically active compounds, pesticides, surfactants, and personal care products are classified as trace organic compounds. As such, they often present a challenge for researchers in terms of their quantification and removal in water matrices. However, the detection and removal of these pollutants is imperative for the safe disposal of wastewater and its potential reuse. Consequently, advanced technologies, such as membrane separation, are necessary for the preconcentration and removal of these active compounds.

For trace organic compound preconcentration, various sample preparation approaches are utilised prior to their determination, including stir-bar adsorptive microextraction, ultrasound-assisted cloud-point microextraction, solid-phase extraction, gas flow-assisted dispersive liquid-phase microextraction, thin-film microextraction, and membrane solid-phase extraction.

The membrane separation or treatment process mainly depends on three basic principles, namely adsorption, sieving, and the electrostatic phenomenon. Membrane processes such as microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), forward osmosis (FO), and reverse osmosis (RO) are currently used for water reuse, brackish water, and seawater.

Polymer-based membranes are most often used; however, due to hydrophobic polymers such as polysulfone and polyethersulfone, this results in polymeric membranes prone to fouling. This can lead to blockages of the membrane pores, decreasing its performance and increasing its general operating expenses due to extra cleaning stages.

Membrane-based methods are competitive in terms of costs compared to traditional processes, as they provide a high separation efficiency, have a wide range of applications, and are constantly improving thanks to different nanocomposite materials. Nanocomposites are now commonly employed to strengthen the standard polymeric membrane materials used in water treatment processes. A number of different materials and methods have been put forward, with thin-film nanocomposites (TFNs), electrospun polymeric nanofibrous membranes, carbon nanotubes, metals and metal oxides, graphene and graphene oxide, zwitterionic materials, and metal–organic frameworks presenting the greatest promise.

This Special Issue is dedicated to original research and review papers exploring the latest developments in the field of membrane technology for the quantification and/or removal of trace organic compounds in different water matrices.

Dr. Anele Mpupa
Prof. Dr. Philiswa Nosizo Nomngongo
Dr. Azile Nqombolo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • membrane separation/technology
  • nanocomposites
  • microextraction
  • emerging organic pollutants
  • trace analysis
  • water

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 6943 KB  
Article
Flux and Fouling Behavior of Graphene Oxide-Polyphenylsulfone Ultrafiltration Membranes Incorporating ZIF-67/ZIF-8 Fillers
by Azile Nqombolo, Thollwana Andretta Makhetha, Richard Motlhaletsi Moutloali and Philiswa Nosizo Nomngongo
Membranes 2025, 15(10), 289; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes15100289 - 25 Sep 2025
Viewed by 484
Abstract
Wider adoption of membrane technology is hindered by fouling and flux/rejection challenges. Recent practice in mitigating these is to incorporate hydrophilic and porous fillers. Herein the addition of hydrophilic graphene oxide (GO) in conjunction with porous mixed ZIFs (ZIF-67/ZIF-8) crystallites were used as [...] Read more.
Wider adoption of membrane technology is hindered by fouling and flux/rejection challenges. Recent practice in mitigating these is to incorporate hydrophilic and porous fillers. Herein the addition of hydrophilic graphene oxide (GO) in conjunction with porous mixed ZIFs (ZIF-67/ZIF-8) crystallites were used as inorganic fillers in the preparation of polyphenylenesulfone (PPSU) ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. The morphology of the resultant composite membranes was assessed using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) whilst surface hydrophilicity through water contact angle. The pure water flux (PWF) and membrane permeability were found to increase with increasing filler content. This was attributed to the combined hydrophilicity of GO and porous structure of the ZIF materials because of increasing alternative water pathways in the membrane matrix with increasing filler content. Furthermore, the increase in the ZIF component led to increasing bovine serum albumin (BSA) fouling resistance as demonstrated by increasing fouling recovery ratio (FRR). The dye rejection was due to a combination of electrostatic interaction between the fillers and the dyes as well as size exclusion. The chemical interactions between the ZIFs and the dyes resulted in slightly different rejection profiles for the smaller dyes, the cationic methylene blue being rejected less efficiently than the anionic methyl orange, potentially leading to their separation. The larger anionic dye, Congo red was rejected predominately through size exclusion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Preparation and Application of Nanocomposite Membranes)
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