Frontier of metal-organic framework nanofillers for pre-eminent membrane distillation applications

The role of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in applications like desalination, wastewater/water treatment, carbon capture, adsorption, and many more have significantly increased over the past decade. MOFs are nanoscale crystalline materials that can be synthesized with high perm-selectivity. In desalination, membrane technologies are leading the market compared to thermal based technologies with high throughput at minimal energy investment. Membrane distillation (MD) has the potential to change the landscape of desalination by treating high concentration brine with low-grade heat. Recently, several studies emphasized that the MOF-based MD membranes enhanced their selectivity and longevity via surface modifications, including superhydrophobicity, omniphobicity, and photocatalytic activity of the membranes. Readers can find the subtlety of MOF synthesis via variety of routes and their intercalation with the polymeric skeleton for MD membranes. This study puts forth the design strategies of MOF-based membranes and their transposition from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. The merits and demerits associated with MOF-integrated membranes and sustainable approaches to fabricating composite MOF membranes in accordance with MD applications have been discussed. Apart from that, exploring MOF-based membranes for MD applications still remains emergent research. This study aims to encourage future research on the fabrication of competent MOF-assembled membranes.