Investigation of Photocatalytic Activity of the Mixed Matrix Membrane Containing TiO2-POM Hybrid Mineral Fibers

A photocatalytic membrane can be defined as a combination between a photocatalyst and a membrane [1]. The presence of a photocatalyst gives rise to an enhancement of the rate of a chemical reaction or its initiation under ultraviolet, infrared, or visible light illumination and the role of light is to photoexcite the solid that works as the photocatalyst [2]. The membrane has the task to immobilize the photocatalyst and to act as a molecular separation barrier for the reagents and/or reaction products[3,4]. In this study, the photocatalytic activity for the polyethersulfone membranes was achieved by incorporation of a special additive into the polymeric matrix.in order to prepare the photocatalyst, H3PMo12O40 as a poluoxometalate was blended with TiO2 and SiO2 particles by electrospinning method and then the fabricated fibers were calcinated. Consequently, the mineral hybrid fibers were mixed with the polymer solution and used for preparation of membranes by phase inversion method. FT-IR and XRD analysis were used for characterization of synthesized compounds. The FE-SEM manifest that the average diameter of the hybrid composite fibers is about 1 µm. Membrane morphology was investigated by FE-SEM. The performance of system was examined by several analysis such as pure water flux, contact angle, salts and heavy metal rejection. Photocatalytic experiments confirm that membranes display highly efficient and durable activity for the photo degradation of methylene blue (MB) and humic acid (HA). Experiments show that the prepared membranes have a good stability under UV irradiation and can be used potentially for separation of different components from water.