Abstract The sustainability of global clean and safe water supply is one of the grand challenges facing the world. Membrane technology based on polymeric membranes is one of the most important and widely recognized technologies for desalination and wastewater treatment. While polymeric membranes are known to be plagued with some bottlenecks, the technical progress and the accompanying knowledge in inorganic membrane development have grown inexorably to solve some of the underlying issues. Aside from the conventionally used ceramic membranes which based on metal oxides, nanostructures such as zeolites, metal organic frameworks and carbon based materials have sparked enormous interest in the preparation of inorganic membranes owing to their tunable nanoscaled structural properties that can render excellent rejection and/or ultrafast water transport. This review provides insights into the physico-chemical properties and fabrication approaches of different classes of inorganic membranes. The transport mechanisms that are associated to their unique structural features are also discussed. Furthermore, the performance evaluation of these inorganic membranes in a wide spectrum of desalination and wastewater treatment applications are also elaborated. Finally, the challenges in the development of inorganic membrane for practical commercial application are identified and the future perspectives are presented.

中文翻译：

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用于海水淡化和废水处理的无机膜综述

摘要 全球清洁安全供水的可持续性是世界面临的重大挑战之一。基于聚合物膜的膜技术是用于海水淡化和废水处理的最重要和广泛认可的技术之一。虽然已知聚合物膜受到一些瓶颈的困扰，但无机膜开发中的技术进步和相关知识已经不可阻挡地增长，以解决一些潜在的问题。除了常规使用的基于金属氧化物的陶瓷膜外，沸石、金属有机骨架和碳基材料等纳米结构由于其可调节的纳米级结构特性而引起了人们对制备无机膜的极大兴趣，这些特性可以提供出色的截留率和/或超快水运。该综述提供了对不同类别无机膜的物理化学性质和制造方法的见解。还讨论了与其独特的结构特征相关的运输机制。此外，还详细阐述了这些无机膜在广泛的海水淡化和废水处理应用中的性能评估。最后，确定了用于实际商业应用的无机膜开发中的挑战，并提出了未来的前景。还详细阐述了这些无机膜在广泛的海水淡化和废水处理应用中的性能评估。最后，确定了用于实际商业应用的无机膜开发中的挑战，并提出了未来的前景。还详细阐述了这些无机膜在广泛的海水淡化和废水处理应用中的性能评估。最后，确定了用于实际商业应用的无机膜开发中的挑战，并提出了未来的前景。