Insights into metal-organic frameworks-integrated membranes for desalination process: A review

Abstract

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been classified as promising membrane materials for ultimate and efficient water desalination attributed by its diversified structures, tunable chemical functionalities and pore structures that serve as additional water channels. MOF-integrated membranes have been successfully prepared and applied for desalination process via different membrane processes; namely reverse osmosis (RO), forward osmosis (FO), nanofiltration (NF) and membrane distillation (MD). While there are reviews on the applications of MOFs-based membranes for water purification, herein, we present a comprehensive review of recent progress of different types of MOFs-integrated membranes, with emphasis placed on water desalination. This review focuses on membrane requirements for different membrane processes, the development of suitable MOFs for water application, different approaches of designing MOFs-based membranes, prior of discussion on the recent progress of MOFs-integrated membranes for desalination using different types of membrane processes. Lastly, insights and perspectives are suggested in terms of future research directions and development challenges.