Novel g-C3N4/TiO2/PAA/PTFE ultrafiltration membrane enabling enhanced antifouling and exceptional visible-light photocatalytic self-cleaning
Novel g-C3N4/TiO2/PAA/PTFE ultrafiltration membrane enabling enhanced antifouling and exceptional visible-light photocatalytic self-cleaning
Membrane fouling due to superhydropobicity of polytetrafluoroethylene ultrafiltration membranes (PTFE UFMs) represents a grand challenge for their practical applications in diverse water treatment industries. Surface immobilisation of hydrophilic and chemically stable inorganic metal oxides (TiO2, ZrO2, etc) has been developed to improve hydrophilicity of the PTFE UFMs, though they still suffer from expensive and repeating regenerations once fouled. To address such issues, we strive to firmly immobilize g-C3N4 modified TiO2 (g-C3N4/TiO2, hereafter CNTO) onto PTFE UFM via a facile plasma-enhanced surface graft technique using polyacrylic acid (PAA) as a bridging agent. As reported here, the obtained CNTO/PAA/PTFE UFM shows much smaller surface water contact angle (WCA) of 62.3° than that of bare PTFE UFM (115.8°), leading to enhanced water flux of 830 L m−2 h-1 in the initial ultrafiltration of modelled waste-water containing methylene blue (MB). The CNTO/PAA/PTFE UFM is highly resistant to fouling in the prolonged filtration of 1000 mg/L bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution, while the fouled CNTO/PAA/PTFE UFM is able to regenerate rapidly under either UV or visible-light irradiation. The enhanced performance of the novel CNTO/PAA/PTFE UFM is reasonably attributed to its high wettability and robust photocatalytic activity of the g-C3N4/TiO2 coating that follows different self-cleaning mechanisms under UV and visible light irradiations.
Anti-fouling, g-C3N4, PTFE, Self-cleaning, TiO2, Visible-light photocatalysis
Chi, Lina
ae1400a8-9860-4851-94d6-6981267c5afd
Qian, Yingjia
52fab006-a18a-4c1c-9732-2e1c4d975336
Guo, Junqiu
ec098123-bc59-445e-a5d9-460edc5f9d16
Wang, Xinze
34380561-0411-4064-b1cb-5cbcc0cd9f5f
Arandiyan, Hamidreza
6cf8dbb7-08d7-4dec-af86-ee61955b3ab7
Jiang, Zheng
bcf19e78-f5c3-48e6-802b-fe77bd12deab
Chi, Lina
ae1400a8-9860-4851-94d6-6981267c5afd
Qian, Yingjia
52fab006-a18a-4c1c-9732-2e1c4d975336
Guo, Junqiu
ec098123-bc59-445e-a5d9-460edc5f9d16
Wang, Xinze
34380561-0411-4064-b1cb-5cbcc0cd9f5f
Arandiyan, Hamidreza
6cf8dbb7-08d7-4dec-af86-ee61955b3ab7
Jiang, Zheng
bcf19e78-f5c3-48e6-802b-fe77bd12deab
Chi, Lina, Qian, Yingjia, Guo, Junqiu, Wang, Xinze, Arandiyan, Hamidreza and Jiang, Zheng
(2019)
Novel g-C3N4/TiO2/PAA/PTFE ultrafiltration membrane enabling enhanced antifouling and exceptional visible-light photocatalytic self-cleaning.
Catalysis Today.
(doi:10.1016/j.cattod.2019.02.027).
Abstract
Membrane fouling due to superhydropobicity of polytetrafluoroethylene ultrafiltration membranes (PTFE UFMs) represents a grand challenge for their practical applications in diverse water treatment industries. Surface immobilisation of hydrophilic and chemically stable inorganic metal oxides (TiO2, ZrO2, etc) has been developed to improve hydrophilicity of the PTFE UFMs, though they still suffer from expensive and repeating regenerations once fouled. To address such issues, we strive to firmly immobilize g-C3N4 modified TiO2 (g-C3N4/TiO2, hereafter CNTO) onto PTFE UFM via a facile plasma-enhanced surface graft technique using polyacrylic acid (PAA) as a bridging agent. As reported here, the obtained CNTO/PAA/PTFE UFM shows much smaller surface water contact angle (WCA) of 62.3° than that of bare PTFE UFM (115.8°), leading to enhanced water flux of 830 L m−2 h-1 in the initial ultrafiltration of modelled waste-water containing methylene blue (MB). The CNTO/PAA/PTFE UFM is highly resistant to fouling in the prolonged filtration of 1000 mg/L bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution, while the fouled CNTO/PAA/PTFE UFM is able to regenerate rapidly under either UV or visible-light irradiation. The enhanced performance of the novel CNTO/PAA/PTFE UFM is reasonably attributed to its high wettability and robust photocatalytic activity of the g-C3N4/TiO2 coating that follows different self-cleaning mechanisms under UV and visible light irradiations.
Text
1-s2.0-S092058611830885X-main
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 13 February 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 22 February 2019
Keywords:
Anti-fouling, g-C3N4, PTFE, Self-cleaning, TiO2, Visible-light photocatalysis
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 429479
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/429479
ISSN: 0920-5861
PURE UUID: c5970afe-3115-444b-bc4e-5984393182bb
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 27 Mar 2019 17:30
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 05:22
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Contributors
Author:
Lina Chi
Author:
Yingjia Qian
Author:
Junqiu Guo
Author:
Xinze Wang
Author:
Hamidreza Arandiyan
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