Bisphenol A Removal Using Visible Light Driven Cu2O/PVDF Photocatalytic Dual Layer Hollow Fiber Membrane.

Siti Hawa Mohamed Noor,Mukhlis A Rahman,Tonni Agustiono Kurniawan,Ahmad Fauzi Ismail,Mohd Hafiz Dzarfan Othman,Juhana Jaafar,Huda Abdullah,Hazirah Syahirah Zakria,Mohd Hafiz Puteh,Watsa Khongnakorn,Tijjani El-Badawy,Oulavanh Sinsamphanh

doi:10.3390/membranes12020208

Abstract

Bisphenol A (BPA) is amongst the endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) that cause illness to humans and in this work was removed using copper (I) oxide (Cu2O) visible light photocatalyst which has a narrow bandgap of 2.2 eV. This was done by embedding Cu2O into polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes to generate a Cu2O/PVDF dual layer hollow fiber (DLHF) membrane using a co-extrusion technique. The initial ratio of 0.25 Cu2O/PVDF was used to study variation of the outer dope extrusion flowrate for 3 mL/min, 6 mL/min and 9 mL/min. Subsequently, the best flowrate was used to vary Cu2O/PVDF for 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 with fixed outer dope extrusion flowrate. Under visible light irradiation, 10 mg/L of BPA was used to assess the membranes performance. The results show that the outer and inner layers of the membrane have finger-like structures, whereas the intermediate section of the membrane has a sponge-like structure. With high porosity up to 63.13%, the membrane is hydrophilic and exhibited high flux up to 13,891 L/m2h. The optimum photocatalytic membrane configuration is 0.50 Cu2O/PVDF DLHF membrane with 6 mL/min outer dope flowrate, which was able to remove 75% of 10 ppm BPA under visible light irradiation without copper leaching into the water sample.

Highlights

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was performed on 0.25 Cu2 O/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) dual layer hollow fiber (DLHF) membranes with three distinct outer dope flowrates of 3 mL/min, 6 mL/min and 9 mL/min
The cross-sectional scans revealed that the membrane had a finger-like structure at the inner and outer ends, and a sponge-like structure in the center which is known as a sandwich-like structure
The results reveal that a 6 mL/min outer dope flowrate performs well on water flux readings

Summary

Introduction

As global development increases rapidly, the usage of polycarbonate plastics, epoxy resins, personal care products as well as thermal paper and toys increase extensively These products contain bisphenol A (BPA) in their production [1]. BPA is one of the endocrine disrupting compounds and acts as a synthetic estrogenic hormone which can bind to estrogenic receptors and affects the estrogenic pathway This compound can adversely affect humans resulting in infertility, male sexual dysfunction, polycystic ovary syndrome, miscarriages, premature deliveries, cardiovascular disease, liver failure, obesity, thyroid function and liver function [4]. Synthetic hormones and endogenous compounds are frequently detected in surface waters, soils, sewages and even groundwaters It gets into our drinking water after being exposed to heat, acid or base. BPA itself can be found in Malaysia’s tap water in the range of 3.5–59.8 ng/L, bottled mineral water at around 3.3 ± 2.6 ng/L and

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