Nano valent zero iron (NZVI) immobilized CNTs hollow fiber membrane for flow-through heterogeneous Fenton process

Abstract

Fenton, a conventional technology, has been widely employed for wastewater purification, but it still suffers from the unsatisfactory capability for pollutants degradation. Herein, a membrane-based Fenton process was proposed by immobilizing nano zero valent iron (NZVI) in a CNT membrane (Fe0-CNT catalytic membrane) for accelerating pollutants degradation efficiency. It realizes a promotion on·OH generation rate from H2O2 catalyzed by NZVI catalyst owing to the cycle of between ferrous and ferric ions during the Fenton process. Meanwhile, mass transfer improvement can be achieved due to the liquid convection in the membrane pore via the flow-through process. As a result, the Fe0-CNT catalytic membrane presented a high removal efficiency of 98% for bisphenol A (BPA) under an optimum operation condition. Also, the prepared Fe0-CNT catalytic membrane showed excellent degradation efficiency for other organic contaminants, such as phenol (80.6%), sulfamethoxazole (SMX, 95.5%) and paracetamol (ACM, 84.1%). Furthermore, the environmental factors (various of anion ions, such as Cl-, HCO3- and NO3- and natural organic matter) presented negligible influences on organic pollutants degradation via Fe0-CNT catalytic membrane, suggesting a good potential for factual wastewater treatment application. Based on the results, this work introduces a novel insight into the design of highly efficient Fenton process using membrane-based catalyst for pollution abatement.