Inkjet printing technique for membrane fabrication and modification: A review.

Recently, inkjet printing technology has received increasing interests for membrane fabrication and modification. It offers various advantages such as the facile and fast process, minimal chemical consumption and precise chemical deposition. It is essential to have a holistic understanding of the inkjet printing technique used for different kinds for membranes, not only to further accelerate its application in membrane field, but also to prepare more advanced membranes with excellent performance. This review paper introduced the basic inkjet printer types used for membrane preparation such as thermal and piezoelectric drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet printers. It also provided a comprehensive review of the detailed inkjet printing assisted membrane fabrication and modification processes and their applications in different membrane areas including the membrane-based separation (e.g., reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN), gas separation membranes, and oil/water separation membranes) and fuel cell applications. [Display omitted] • The fundamental mechanisms and the various types of inkjet printers are introduced. • Detailed inkjet printing assisted membrane preparation processes and the performances are summarised and discussed in terms of different membrane applications. • The challenges and perspectives of the inkjet printed membranes are proposed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]