Trace organic compounds (TOrCs) have emerged as a critical concern for securing high-quality and safe water resources. Advanced water treatment using reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes has proven to be a promising technology for removing TOrCs. In this context, identifying the TOrC rejection mechanisms of RO/NF membranes is of paramount importance for the effective design of membrane processes and materials to improve the efficiency of TOrC treatment. However, the characteristic TOrC removal mechanisms of RO/NF membranes remain unclear, presumably due to the vast differences in the membrane structures and the limited number of TOrCs that have been investigated in past studies. Hence, the present article comprehensively reviews, analyzes and elucidates TOrC rejection mechanisms by characterizing key rejection-governing solute parameters for fully-aromatic polyamide-based tight RO/NF membranes (MWCO ≤ 200 Da) using the published rejection data for a large number of TOrCs (>300). We found that size exclusion and adsorption (and subsequent partitioning) via specific interactions play a dominant role in TOrC rejection by elucidating the key rejection-governing solute characteristics. In addition, this paper outlines up-to-date research on the fabrication of advanced membranes designed to improve TOrC removal performance. Based on this review, we propose future directions for reliably predicting and effectively enhancing the TOrC separation performance of RO/NF membranes.

痕量有机化合物 (TOrC) 已成为确保高质量和安全水资源的关键问题。使用反渗透 (RO) 和纳滤 (NF) 膜的高级水处理已被证明是去除 TOrC 的有前途的技术。在这种情况下，确定 RO/NF 膜的 TOrC 排斥机制对于有效设计膜工艺和材料以提高 TOrC 处理效率至关重要。然而，RO/NF 膜的特征性 TOrC 去除机制仍不清楚，可能是由于膜结构的巨大差异和过去研究中研究的 TOrC 数量有限。因此，本文综合评述，使用已发布的大量 TOrC (>300) 的排斥数据，通过表征基于全芳族聚酰胺的紧密 RO/NF 膜（MWCO ≤ 200 Da）的关键排斥控制溶质参数来分析和阐明 TOrC 排斥机制。我们发现通过特定相互作用的尺寸排阻和吸附（以及随后的分配）通过阐明关键的排斥控制溶质特性在 TOrC 排斥中起主导作用。此外，本文概述了为提高 TOrC 去除性能而设计的先进膜的制造的最新研究。基于此综述，我们提出了可靠预测和有效提高 RO/NF 膜的 TOrC 分离性能的未来方向。