Bone/muscle-inspired polymer porous matrix toughened carbon nanofibrous catalytic membranes for robust emerging contaminants removal

Abstract

Catalytic membranes are able to conquer the hurdles of common heterogeneous catalysts via facilitated convection/diffusion–reaction process, which efficiently eliminate emerging contaminants (ECs) without secondary contamination. It is challenging to maintain steady advanced oxidation efficiency via rationally designing the robust nano-architectures of catalytic membranes. Inspired by tenacious bone/muscle structure, we for the first time synthesized polyvinylidene fluoride shells and micro-webs intensified carbon catalytic nanofibrous membranes (PVDF-CCNM) using a flash freezing route, achieving instantaneous ECs degradation (e.g. 98.9 ± 0.5% of tetracycline) and producing a massive water throughput (e.g. 29.4 × 103 L m−2) in 84 h under continuous cross-flow filtration, superior to state-of-the-art catalytic membranes. The resulted membrane showed a much higher apparent reaction constant value (1353.5 μmol g−1 min−1) during the dynamic filtration system than that (4.9 μmol g−1 min−1) in batch system, ascribing to forced convection and facilitated diffusion–reaction. Moreover, the resulted membrane exhibited strong resistance to various anions and broad pH range due to the 1O2 dominated catalytic degradation mechanism, which allows for remediating actual high-salinity coal chemical wastewater. This work highlights an innovative catalytic membrane design for robust and practical treatment of recalcitrant pollutants.