Improving surface structure of photocatalytic self‐cleaning membrane by WO₃/PANI nanoparticles

Abstract

To create a self‐cleaning feature and improve antifouling property, polysulfone (PSf) membranes were modified with WO3 and polyaniline (PANI) nanoparticles (0–2 wt%) via phase inversion method for ultrafiltration of landfill leachate. The mass ratio of WO3 nanoparticles was varied between 0, 40 and 60 wt% in different loadings. All synthesized membranes were tested with and without UV irradiation to evaluate the self‐cleaning feature. The synthesized PANI was analyzed with scanning electron morphology (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The surface hydrophilicity of the modified membranes increases with increasing the nanoparticle loadings (0–2 wt%). The membrane morphology indicated higher porosity and more finger like pores for the modified membranes. The porosity of 86.8% was achieved for the membrane containing 2 wt% PANI. The flux recovery ratio (FR) of membranes without UV radiation was increased by increasing the ratio of PANI to WO3 nanoparticles, while the antifouling ability of membranes including WO3 nanoparticles improved and reached to 98.87% after UV radiation. The highest COD removal before (76.65 %) and after (78.42%) UV radiation was obtained for the membrane containing 2 wt% nanoparticle loading. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Drawing on Membrane Photocatalysis for Fouling Mitigation

“…Other Metal-Oxide-Based Photocatalysts. Beyond TiO 2 , some other metal oxide nanostructures such as zinc oxide (ZnO), 111 iron oxide (Fe 2 O 3 ), 112 tin oxide (SnO 2 ), 113 and tungsten oxide (WO 3 ) 114 have also been explored for photocatalytic degradation of contaminants and applied in membrane fouling mitigation. Common features sought after when selecting semiconductors for photocatalysis include being inexpensive, nontoxic, and physically and chemically stable.…”

Photocatalytic Membranes

“…Hence, change of WO3 membrane to improve the recombination misfortunes of charge transporters is important and essential. Various examinations have explored furthermore, announced that planning and altering WO3 structure into nanodimension or nanostructure may defeat the recombination misfortunes of charge bearers and improve the photocatalysis oxidation execution essentially [31].…”

Leachate treatment potential of nanomaterial based assemblies: a systematic review on recent development

“…Nanomaterials such as nanoparticles (NPs), nanomembrane nanofilters, and nanotubes emerge as suitable candidates in these options. There is a database of the past ten years of research showing that nanomaterials have been continuously explored in the development of novel adsorbents (Yang et al 2013), catalysts (Azadi et al 2017), and filtration assemblies (Shafaei et al 2016a), as immobilization support and entrapment matrix for different enzymes and microbes, and as reactive materials for the treatment of wastewater and leachate (see Figure 2). Further, the nanomaterial systems-based prototypes are also being scaled up for integration with already existing plants to improve their efficiency and pollutant degradation capacity (Ji et al 2017).…”