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Forward osmosis (FO) processes have recently attracted increasing attention and show great potential as a low-energy separation technology for water regeneration and seawater desalination. However, a number of challenges, such as internal concentration polarization, membrane fouling, and the tradeoff effect, limit the scaleup and industrial practicality of FO. Hence, a versatile method is needed to address these problems and fabricate ideal FO membranes. Among the many methods, incorporating polymeric FO membranes with inorganic nanomaterials is widely used and effective and is reviewed in this paper. The properties of FO membranes can be improved and meet the demands of various applications with the incorporation of nanomaterials. This review presents the actualities and advantages of organic-inorganic hybrid nanocomposite FO membranes. Nanomaterials applied in the FO field, such as carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide, halloysite nanotubes, silica and Ag nanoparticles, are classified and compared in this review. The effects of modification methods on the performance of nanocomposite FO membranes, including blending, in situ interfacial polymerization, surface grafting and layer-by-layer assembly, are also reviewed. The outlook section discusses the prospects of organicinorganic hybrid nanocomposite FO membranes and advanced nanotechnologies available for FO processes. This discussion may provide new opportunities for developing novel FO membranes with high performance.

The interaction between water and fibers is critical in the physiological comfort of garments, especially inner wears. Antigravity directional water transport and ultrafast evaporation are the two key indicators to be expected of a high‐performance moisture management textile. However, it is practically still challenging to make the textiles with continuous directional liquid moisture transport and outstanding prevention of water penetration in the reverse direction. In this work, a Janus functional textile achieved by graphene oxide (GO) coating is developed, with the GO coating side on the textile working as the outer side for its good moisture absorbing and spreading features and the reduced GO coating side serving as the inner layer because of its hydrophobicity. Performance of the as‐prepared textile is characterized by moisture management tester, exhibiting remarkable accumulative one‐way transport index R (1145%) and a desired overall moisture management capacity (0.77) within 120 s, the negative R value (−690.4%) indicates an ultrahigh directional liquid moisture transport capacity. The Janus textile can provide a source of inspiration for the development of more adaptive textiles and garments to maximize personal comfort in demanding situations under hot and humid environments.

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In this article, we utilized a facile approach for growth of carbon nanotubes onto the surface of carbon fibers by microwave plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition to improve the interfacial properties of composites. By adjusting the deposition time, the length and density of carbon nanotubes could be controlled, and the results of Brunauer–Emmett–Teller testing indicated that the specific surface area was increased with the deposition time prolonged, which improve the contact area between fiber and resin matrix. The interfacial shear strength of the composites increased significantly with increasing in deposition time. When the deposited time reached 15 min, the interfacial shear strength of carbon fiber/epoxy composites increased 153%, reaching to 129.92 Mpa. On the basis of investigation for the relationship between the interfacial properties and the micro‐structures of composites, we found that the propagation path of transverse cracks on interface increased with the increasing of interfacial properties. POLYM. COMPOS., 39:E1262–E1268, 2018. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers

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