title: Integration of membrane filtration and photoelectrocatalysis using a TiO2/carbon/Al2O3 membrane for enhanced water treatment.
abstract: Coupling membrane filtration with photocatalysis provides multifunction involving filtration and photocatalytic degradation for removing pollutants from water, but the performance of photocatalytic membrane is limited due to the quick recombination of photogenerated electron-holes in photocatalytic layer. Herein, a TiO2/carbon/Al2O3 membrane was designed and constructed through sequentially depositing graphitic carbon layer with good electro-conductivity and TiO2 nanoparticles layer with photocatalytic activity on Al2O3 membrane support. When light irradiated on the membrane with a voltage supply, the photogenerated electrons could be drained from photocatalytic layer and separated with holes efficiently, thus endowing the membrane with photoelectrocatalytic function. Membrane performance tests indicated that the photoelectrocatalytic membrane filtration (PECM) showed improved removal of natural organic matters (NOMs) and permeate flux with increasing voltage supply. For PECM process at 1.0 V, its NOMs removal was 1.2 or 1.7 times higher than that of filtration with UV irradiation or filtration alone, and its stable permeate flux was 1.3 or 3 times higher than that of filtration with UV irradiation or filtration alone. Moreover, the PECM process exhibited special advantage in removing organic chemicals (e.g., Rhodamine B), which displayed 1.3 or 3 times higher removal than that of filtration with UV irradiation or filtration alone.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (Ministry of Education, China), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
authors.forename: Guanlong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (Ministry of Education, China), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. Electronic address: shuochen@dlut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (Ministry of Education, China), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
authors.forename: Hongtao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (Ministry of Education, China), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
authors.forename: Xie
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Quan
keywords: Carbon; Membrane; Photoelectrocatalysis; TiO(2); Water treatment