Three birds with one stone: Preparation of multifunctional Fe-MOF/PAN nanofiber membranes for wastewater treatment

In this research, a new NH2-MIL-88B(Fe)/polyacrylonitrile nanofiber membrane (NPNFM) was synthesized utilizing a straightforward electrospinning technique. The morphological characteristics and performance of nanofiber membranes were finely tuned via adjusting the dosage of NH2-MIL-88B(Fe) (NM88B, the "stone"). The prepared NPNFM exhibits superhydrophilicity/underwater superoleophobicity, coupled with outstanding photo-Fenton self-cleaning ability (the first two "birds"). This membrane efficiently and swiftly facilitated the separation of various surfactant-stabilized emulsions under gravitational force, achieving a separation efficiency and flux of up to 99.5 % and 350.3 L m-2h−1, respectively. The fouling on the membrane surface can be rapidly decomposed, attributing to the superior photo-Fenton activity of NM88B. Furthermore, the organic dye methylene blue (MB) was degraded by 97.4 % within 40 min under the catalytic influence of the membrane. The nanofiber membrane has good mechanical properties and its tensile strength is about 2.3 times that of the original membrane attributing to the good compatibility between NM88B and the membrane matrix (the third "bird"). This study proposed new Fe-MOF-based photo-Fenton multifunctional membranes with the characteristics of environmental stability and high efficiency in wastewater treatment fields.