Recent Progress in Surface Science and Its Application in Advanced Water Treatment by Membrane Processes

As environmental regulations become more stringent, water, used either as drinking water or as industrial process water, becomes increasingly better in its quality. As a result, an increasingly more advanced water treatment technology is required. It is believed that membrane technology will be able to satisfy such a requirement. The heart of the membrane technology is membrane. The advancement in water treatment technology using membranes, therefore, depends on the development of novel membranes which are superior in performance to the currently available membranes. In this paper, a brief review will be made how the recent progress in surface science, such as surface modification and surface characterization, has aided to improve the performance of the membranes used for water treatment. Some suggestions will also be made regarding the future direction of the research in this area.