Efficient Fenton-Like Catalysis Boosting the Antifouling Performance of the Heterostructured Membranes Fabricated via Vapor-Induced Phase Separation and In Situ Mineralization

Abstract

A photocatalytic membrane with significant degradation and antifouling performance has become an important part in wastewater treatment. However, the low catalyst loading on the polymer membrane limits its performance improvement. Herein, we fabricated poly­(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and poly­(acrylic acid) (PAA) blend membranes with a rough surface via a vapor-induced phase separation (VIPS) process. Then Fe3+ was cross-linked with the carboxyl groups on the membrane surface and further in situ mineralized into β-FeOOH nanorods. The resultant membranes exhibit not only hydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity but also favorable separation efficiency and high water flux in oil-in-water emulsions separation. Under visible light irradiation, the membrane can degrade methylene blue (MB) to 95.2% in 180 min. More importantly, the membrane has a significant photocatalytic self-cleaning ability for crude oil with a flux recovery ratio (FRR) as high as 94.1%. This work brings a new strategy to fabricate the rough and porous surface for high loading of the hydrophilic photo-Fenton catalyst, improving the oil/water emulsion separation and antifouling performance of the membranes.

Iron-Based Oxides Anchored on the Catechol/Silane-Coated Polypropylene Nonwoven Fabrics for Effective Removal of Anionic Dyes

“…49 Figure S5b shows the high-resolution XPS spectra for the O 1s region. The principal peaks of Fe−O (lattice Fe-binding oxygen, 529.7 eV), Fe−OH (lattice hydroxyl, 531.2 eV), C−O (532.5 eV), and C−O (534.2 eV) are observed at the typical positions 53,56. The results show that FeOOH was successfully grown on the CK coating during incubation.We tried to explore the trend of PP-(CK-Fe) surface elements by EDS.…”

“…47,49 A broad peak appears at 3000−3500 cm −1 of PP-CK and PP-(CK-Fe), which belongs to adsorbed water, hydroxyl, or amino groups. 32,53,54 To characterize the changes in amino groups on the coating before and after incubation, we used the classical ninhydrin color test. 55 The results showed that amino groups were present on C2K4 but disappeared on C2K4-Fe (Figure S3).…”

Efficient selective methylene blue adsorption by polyurethane/montmorillonite‐based antifouling electrospun composite membranes

“…The membrane was thoroughly washed using distilled water after emulsion filtration, and the pure water flux was tested again to evaluate the membrane's efficiency. Equation () was used to calculate the oil rejection 41 where C p and C f denote the permeate and feed emulsion concentrations, respectively.…”

“…The flux recovery ratio (FRR) was measured by Equation () 41 where J W 1 is the water flux before oil rejection study and J W 2 is water flux after oil rejection study.…”

Construction of Mineralization Nanostructures in Polymers for Mechanical Enhancement and Functionalization

“…Hao Yang et al used AIBN to initiate the aggregation of acrylic acid (AA) and grafting onto PVDF, and then immersed the PVDF/PAA membrane in FeCl 3 /HCl solution for further generation into 𝛽-FeOOH nanorods. [72] The carboxyl group on PAA can form a stable coordination with Fe 3+ , which induces in situ crystalline mineralization of 𝛽-FeOOH on the membrane. This dynamic metal coordination reduces the energy barrier for the binding of Fe 3+ to organisms, facilitating the aggregation, nucleation, and crystallization of 𝛽-FeOOH.…”