Advanced Functional Materials
Volume 27, Issue 27, 19 July 2017, Article number 1700251, ISSN: 1616301X
Lv, Y., Zhang, C., He, A., Yang, S.-J., Wu, G.-P., Darling, S.B., Xu, Z.-K.
Abstract
Membrane fouling is one of the most severe problems restricting membrane separation technology for wastewater treatment. This work reports a photocatalytic nanofiltration membrane (NFM) with self-cleaning property fabricated using a facile biomimetic mineralization process. In this strategy, a polydopamine (PDA)/polyethyleneimine (PEI) intermediate layer is fabricated on an ultrafiltration membrane via a co-deposition method followed by mineralization of a photocatalytic layer consisting of β-FeOOH nanorods. The PDA–PEI layer acts both as a nanofiltration selective layer and an intermediate layer for anchoring the β-FeOOH nanorods via strong coordination complexes between Fe3+ and catechol groups. In visible light, the β-FeOOH layer exhibits efficient photocatalytic activity for degrading dyes through the photo-Fenton reaction in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, endowing the NFM concurrently with effective nanofiltration performance and self-cleaning capability. Moreover, the mineralized NFMs exhibit satisfactory stability under simultaneous filtration and photocatalysis processing, showing great potential in advanced wastewater treatment. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim