Facile fabrication of reusable FeOOH-polycarbonate membranes for effective separation of organic molecules

Abstract

FeOOH-polycarbonate (PC) membranes have been facilely fabricated via interfacial synthesis; FeOOH rods of 200 nm in diameters are synthesized inside the pores of PC membranes. The as-synthesized FeOOH-PC membranes can effectively separate organic dyes under ambient conditions without consuming energies. The FeOOH particles exhibit high porosity having large surface areas and pore volumes. Although relatively smaller 4-nitrophenol (4NP) molecules can diffuse through a FeOOH-PC membrane, larger methyl blue (MB) molecules cannot diffuse through the membrane, leading to the separation of 4NP and MB molecules. After the separation, MB molecules are remained in the FeOOH membranes, leading to the color change of membranes from brown to grey. To reuse a FeOOH-PC membrane, remaining MB molecules inside the membrane can be degraded in 5 min via photo-Fenton reactions. FeOOH-PC membranes fabricated at room temperature have showed higher stability than those fabricated by hydrothermal synthesis, because FeOOH particles were partially transformed into other materials such as Fe2O3 during the hydrothermal synthetic procedure. Overall, FeOOH-PC membranes, synthesized facilely at room temperature, can be employed readily as separation membranes of organic molecules.