Multifunctional Nanostructured Coatings: Biomedical, Environmental, and Energy Applications - Chapter 13: Recent developments in multifunctional nanofibrous membranes for oily wastewater treatment

Oily wastewater and organic contaminants are major environmental challenges, capable of causing harm to aquatic life and ecosystems. These pollutants often result from industrial operations and agricultural practices, highlighting the importance of managing them to prevent environmental deterioration and maintain ecological equilibrium. Various treatment approaches, including physical, chemical, and biological methods, are employed to eliminate these toxins from water bodies. However, recent progress in multifunctional electrospun nanofibrous membranes has highlighted their unique or combined properties, which include enhanced oil-water separation performance, on-demand treatment capabilities, and the ability to remove metal ions, complex compounds, and other contaminants. These membranes have emerged as promising solutions due to their multifunctional properties and superior performance in wastewater treatment. Hierarchical structured multifunctional nanofibrous membranes have sparked considerable interest and have emerged as next-generation surfaces owing to their multifunctional properties. The inclusion of hierarchical structure endows the membrane with distinctive characteristics such as increased wetting selectivity, separation efficiency, robustness, photocatalytic activity, antibacterial, and antifouling properties, ultimately enhancing wastewater treatment performance. This chapter emphasizes the utilization of various types of nanomaterials integrated with polymers to create intriguing polymeric nanocomposite membranes for diversified oily wastewater treatment applications. Examples include membranes incorporating metal oxides, MXenes, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, and metal-organic frameworks. The chapter highlights the fabrication processes, benefits, obstacles, environmental effects, and future prospects of these modified polymeric membranes. It is anticipated that hierarchical structured multifunctional nanofibrous membranes, combined with advancements in nanomaterial integration, will play a significant role in advancing sustainable wastewater treatment practices.