Carbon-based membrane materials and applications in water and wastewater treatment: a review

Water contamination and freshwater shortage are calling for advanced technologies of water recycling. High performance of membrane separation has been recently obtained using carbon-based membrane materials such as carbon, carbon nanotubes, carbon fiber membranes, activated carbon and graphene. Properties of carbon materials improve fouling mitigation, hydrophilicity and permeate quality. Here, we review the fabrication of carbon-based membrane materials and applications in water treatment. The major points are: 1) carbon membranes derived from coal and phenolic resins have been widely used in water treatment. Coal-based carbon membranes used as both electrode and membrane filter display high potential owing to their electrical conductivity. 2) Four types of carbon nanotube membranes are presented, with focus on carbon nanotubes that show high separation performance. 3) Carbon fiber membranes show high permeability due to abundant functional groups on the surface. 4) Activated carbon membranes are promising for organic matter removal owing to their high surface area, micro- and macroscopic structure, and various chemical functional groups. (5) Graphene-based membranes with unique laminar pores are very promising.