Can MXene be the Effective Nanomaterial Family for the Membrane and Adsorption Technologies to Reach a Sustainable Green World?

Environmental pollution has intensified and accelerateddue toa steady increase in the number of industries, and exploring methodsto remove hazardous contaminants, which can be typically divided intoinorganic and organic compounds, have become inevitable. Therefore,the development of efficacious technology for the separation processesis of paramount importance to ensure the environmental remediation.Membrane and adsorption technologies garnered attention, especiallywith the use of novel and high performing nanomaterials, which providea target-specific solution. Specifically, widespread use of MXenenanomaterials in membrane and adsorption technologies has emergeddue to their intriguing characteristics, combined with outstandingseparation performance. In this review, we demonstrated the intrinsicproperties of the MXene family for several separation applications,namely, gas separation, solvent dehydration, dye removal, separationof oil-in-water emulsions, heavy metal ion removal, removal of radionuclides,desalination, and other prominent separation applications. We highlightedthe recent advancements used to tune separation potential of the MXenefamily such as the manipulation of surface chemistry, delaminationor intercalation methods, and fabrication of composite or nanocompositematerials. Moreover, we focused on the aspects of stability, fouling,regenerability, and swelling, which deserve special attention whenthe MXene family is implemented in membrane and adsorption-based separationapplications.