Recent trends in water purification using electrospun nanofibrous membranes

Water is the most important and limited resource on earth, which has been contaminated by heavy metals, pathogens, dust, dyes, pesticides, organic and inorganic substances. For improvement of water quality and decontamination of water, several methods have been employed, but the majority of these are time-consuming, less efficient and expensive. The nanotechnology-based solutions have been successfully implemented to this domain in recent years. The nanofibrous membrane made from different polymeric materials is employed for water purification as these are affordable, sustainable, efficient, durable, nanoporous and has higher surface area. Additionally, the nanofibrous membrane works without the accumulation of chemicals. This paper reviews the recent updates on sustainability of electrospun nanofibrous membranes, prerequisite of nanofibrous membranes, manufacturing techniques, merits and limitations of nanofibrous membrane and solutions to overcome the issue faced by electrospun nanofibrous membrane. Moreover, this paper also discusses the polymers producing lesser carbon emissions, environmental implications of fibrous membranes and the role of membranes for the filtration of micron to submicron particles, dyes, heavy metals and particulate removal. This paper also presents the type of worldwide water problems and literature review on innovation in membrane-based techniques for textile waste and effluent treatment which causes severe pollution and health problems. The contributors of membrane technology for effluent treatment and recovery of raw materials with the advantages and bottleneck of membrane technology are also highlighted in this review paper. Hence, development and implementation of sustainable electrospun nanofibrous membranes are necessary for water and environmental conservation. Graphic abstract Method: A systematic search was carried out to collect data on the recent updates on application of electrospun nanofibrous membranes for wastewater treatment and sustainability of electrospun nanofibrous membranes. For collecting relevant data, different search engines used were Google Scholar, Yahoo, Embase, PubMed, SciFinder and Google scholar patent. There were three independent reviewers each focusing electrospun nanofibrous membrane and water cleaning, respectively. Another reviewer was engaged to resolve any conflicting articles of interest. Literature review was carried out systematically by searching key words "water purification," "waste water filtration" "electrospun nano fibrous membranes," "sustainable membrane technology," "green synthesis of membranes" "membranes," "Bio-based polymers for membrane," "electrospinning," "Electrospinning parameters," "Conventional methods for water treatment," "Limitations of Electrospun membrane," "Textile Waste water treatment," "Functionality of membranes," "Nano materials." The most relevant data were scrutinized after reading whole article. The search covered the scope of title, key words and abstract of review. Various journal articles, book chapters, patent and online sources were added in the review paper after doing complete screening. Most of data were taken from Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Material Science and Applications, Carbohydrates Polymers Journal, Progress in Polymer Science, Macromolecule Rapid Communication and other journals. During search, all irrelevant data were excluded and most recent data were preferred. Moreover, we also reviewed references of retrieved papers to find additional reports not retrieved by initial searches. Special focus was given on electrospun nanofibrous membranes application in wastewater cleaning, environmentally friendly polymers, sustainable membranes for dye removal, pollutant treatment, eco-friendly nanofibrous membranes for water purification, textile waste treatment and their usage as a prefilters. The obtained data were deeply studied and comprehensively presented in the review paper. [GRAPHICS] .