Electrodeposition of hierarchically amorphous FeOOH nanosheets on carbonized bamboo as an efficient filter membrane for As(III) removal

Exploring inexpensive and efficient adsorbents is highly desirable for addressing water contamination issues. To overcome the inherent engineering drawbacks of nanostructured adsorbents, a hierarchical hybrid membrane constructed by amorphous FeOOH nanosheets grown on carbonized bamboo (denoted as FeOOH NSs/CB) has been successfully fabricated within several minutes via a facile electrodeposition process. Thanks to abundant binding sites, amorphous nature of ultrathin FeOOH NSs, and excellent pore accessibility, the optimized FeOOH NSs/CB membrane exhibits superior As(III) sequestration capability in high removal efficiency, fast kinetics, and strong anti-interfering performance. Significantly, the optimized FeOOH NSs/CB hybrid membrane can be directly utilized as an efficient filter unit to continuously treat 1160 mL of As(III)-contaminated water (100 ppb) to below the permitted threshold in drinking water, accompanied by as high as 1528.7 L m−2 h−1 of the permeate flux. Furthermore, the spent FeOOH NSs/CB membrane is capable of being effectively regenerated with NaOH solution with no obvious efficiency decline after cycling tests. This work illustrates huge prospect of the proposed FeOOH NSs/CB hybrid membrane in treating As(III)-contaminated water.