Self-cleaning ceramic membranes coated with low crystalline Fe2O3@CMWCNTs for highly efficient photo-Fenton removal of aromatic compounds

Nanomaterials coated ceramic membranes have become one of the most promising methods to degrade organic pollution. In this study, low crystalline metal nanomaterials were coated on ceramic membranes for the first time. This research fabricated a ceramic membrane with low crystalline Fe2O3@carboxylic multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CMWCNTs) and evaluated its aromatic compounds-degrading ability and self-cleaning ability. The coated membrane demonstrated an excellent removal rate (＞90%) of phenol and atrazine in 120 min’s continuous flow filtration via surface photo-Fenton reaction. Quenching experiments reveal the active substances of the reaction system were singlet oxygen (1O2) and a small amount of hydroxyl radical (·OH). With humic acid (HA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) as model pollutants, the polluted membranes recovered 84.4% and 77.0% flux through the photo-Fenton reaction respectively, which proved the self-cleaning performance of the coated membrane. After 6 cycles, an average degradation efficiency of 92% for phenol was maintained in continuous flow filtration. These results indicated the efficacy of the photo-Fenton coupling coated membrane for treating organically polluted water and its relevance for the design and application of future photo-Fenton membrane filtration system.