Boronate-modified electro-spun Fe doped carbon nanofibrous membrane for selective dye adsorption, catalytic degradation, and bacterial inhibition in treatment of water

Abstract

Recently, dye and microorganism have become the main sources of water pollution due to the rapid development of modern industries and wantonly draining of living sewage. Therefore, the efficient removal of dye and microorganism from the wastewater have attracted considerable attentions of the scientists and engineers around the world. In this regard, a novel phenyl boronic acid (PBA) modified electro-spun Fe doped carbon nanofibrous membrane, C/Fe@PBA, was fabricated in this study for simultaneously selective removal of dye and efficient inhibition of bacteria in water. Firstly, the C/Fe@PBA displayed selective adsorption towards Congo Red (CR) among other dyes by the adsorption order of CR>Methyl Orange (MO) > Neutral Red (NR) > Methylene Blue (MB) > Malachite Green (MG) > Rhodamine B (RhB) with adsorption ability at 25.75, 8.41, 7.11, 7.02, 5.41, and 3.13 mg·g−1. The pseudo first order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm model is calculated to better match the adsorption process of the as prepared membrane towards CR. After 7 rounds of adsorption desorption or 5 degradation cycles, the carbon membrane showed a removal efficiency of 62.2 % or 57.4 %, respectively. Furthermore, the C/Fe@PBA can be employed as effective catalyst to degrade CR in presence of H2O2 under 808 nm near-infrared (NIR) irradiation by the photothermal effect, and the possible catalytic mechanisms and degradation pathway were proposed. Moreover, the as prepared membrane exhibited high bactericidal rate of 99.94 % and 97.44 % against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), respectively. In conclusion, the as prepared carbon membrane with ability of selective adsorption, catalytic degradation, and bacterial inhiation is a promising candidate of filtration membrane in practical sewage management.