Catalytic membrane integrating membrane filtration and advanced oxidation process provides an attractive perspective for wastewater decontamination. Constructing a catalytic membrane with uniformly distributed catalysts is a prerequisite to fully exerting membrane performance. In this work, a Polyvinylidene fluoride/β-FeOOH (PVDF/β-FeOOH) catalytic membrane was fabricated through a facile <i>in situ</i> mineralization method, which not only realizes the uniform construction of catalytic reactive sites in membrane structure but also enables the membrane with hydrophilic and underwater superoleophobicity. Accordingly, the PVDF/β-FeOOH catalytic membrane exhibited attractive cleaning efficiency for various contaminates. High oil rejections (96.4% to 99.3%) and instantaneous degradation of recalcitrant small organic pollutants (99%) can be achieved simultaneously under low operation pressure (0.02 MPa) via activating peroxymonosulfate. Both the uniformly anchored β-FeOOH and confined membrane pore structure-induced enrichment of radicals and pollutants were contributed to the favorable separation and catalytic oxidation performance. Radical quenching test and electron paramagnetic resonance analysis proved that the sulfate radicals and hydroxyl radicals were the two predominated reactive oxygen species during the catalytic oxidation. Besides, the PVDF/β-FeOOH membrane also possessed favorable stability and anti-fouling characteristic. This work provides a novel perspective for the fabrication of catalytic membrane and the application in wastewater treatment.

PVDF catalytic membrane decorated with uniformly anchored β-FeOOH for wastewater decontamination via synergistic filtration-oxidation process

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.