Advancements in Nano-enabled Membrane Distillation for A Sustainable Water-Energy-Environment Nexus.

The emergence of nano innovations in membrane distillation (MD) has garnered increasing scientific interest. This enabled the exploration of state-of-the-art nano-enabled MD membranes with desirable properties, which significantly improve the efficiency and reliability of the MD process and open up opportunities for achieving sustainable water-energy-environment (WEE) nexus. This comprehensive review provides broad coverage and in-depth analysis of recent innovations in nano-enabled MD membranes, focusing on their role in achieving desirable properties, such as strong liquid-repellence, high resistance to scaling, fouling, and wetting, as well as efficient self-heating and self-cleaning functionalities. The recent developments in nano-enhanced photothermal-catalytic applications for water-energy co-generation within a single MD system are also discussed. Furthermore, we identify the bottlenecks that impede the scale-up of nano-enhanced MD membranes and propose a future roadmap for their sustainable commercialization. This holistic overview is expected to inspire future research and development efforts to fully harness the potential of nano-enabled MD membranes to achieve sustainable integration of water, energy, and the environment. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.