Emerging water pollutants with trace concentrations are difficult to be treated by conventional treatment technologies. To achieve fast and efficient degradation of micropollutants, the design of a functionalized electrocatalytic membrane is receiving increasing attention as an active electrode for the electrochemical oxidation process. In this study, a photo-enhanced electrooxidation process equipped with an advanced Au/TiO2 electrocatalytic membrane (Au/TiO2 ECM) was proposed for treating organic micropollutants in water. First, Au nanoparticles were dispersed on TiO2 electrospun activated carbon fibers by a facile in situ photodeposition method. The morphology, composition, structure, and electrochemical characteristics of Au/TiO2 ECM were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results showed that Au nanoparticles were uniformly deposited on the well-aligned TiO2 electrospun fiber surface and the conductivity of the electrocatalytic membrane can be remarkably enhanced for accelerating electrons transport. In addition, the generation of hydroxyl radicals responsible for indirect electrocatalytic oxidation was determined during the degradation process. As demonstrated, the reactive Au/TiO2 electrocatalytic membrane can promote mass transfer and facilitate the production of hydroxyl radicals as compared to the pristine TiO2 electrocatalytic membrane. The preliminary results highlight the great potential of Au/TiO2 electrocatalytic membrane for application in the electrooxidation process. Subsequently, a photo-assisted electrocatalytic degradation experiment will be carried out to gain further insights into the degradation performance, pathways, and transformation products of target contaminants (i.e., tetracycline and sulfamethazine).

Novel Au-TiO2 electrocatalytic membrane for photo-enhanced electrooxidation of emerging micropollutants

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