ABSTRACT
Membrane separation is well-recognized as a mature technology well-suited to address issues of separation and treatment of complex mixtures and reject handling arising from the textile, chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries, to name but a few. This large success can be rationalized by the intrinsic characteristics of membrane processes such as high stability and efficiency, low energy requirement, and ease of operation. This chapter highlights the synergy of inorganic materials and surface functionalization for the design of microporous ceramic membranes with controlled permeability and selectivity. It discusses the application of the so-chemically modified membranes for water treatment including membrane distillation, oil and water separations, and wastewater treatment. Grignard reagents are a class of coupling agents proposed as a new class of surface modifiers of metal oxides. Grignard modification yields non-hydrolysable bonding between the surface of the metal oxide and the functional group, since the Grignard organic groups are directly bonded through a Metal-C bond at room temperature.
