TY - JOUR
T1 - Photocatalytic self-cleaning carbon nitride nanotube intercalated reduced graphene oxide membranes for enhanced water purification
AU - Wei, Yibin
AU - Zhu, Yuxiang
AU - Jiang, Yijiao
PY - 2019/1/15
Y1 - 2019/1/15
N2 - Crumpled laminar nanostructures with nanoscale water transport channels constructed by two-dimensional (2D) reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (rGO NS) have been considered as a promising membrane separation layer for water purification. However, efficient tuning of rGO laminar structures with enhanced membrane performance remains challenging. In this work, we report a novel 1D graphitic carbon nitride nanotube (g-C3N4 NT) intercalated rGO nanofiltration (NF) membrane with enhanced photo-induced self-cleaning performance. The g-C3N4 NT photocatalyst could not only enlarge the rGO interlayer spacing for improved water permeability, but also endow the composite membrane with visible-light photocatalytic activity for efficient removal of organic dyes from polluted water. Our g-C3N4 NT/rGO membrane exhibits superior water permeability (4.87 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1) and synergetic Rhodamine B (RhB) removal rate (>98%) for long-term operation, compared with pristine rGO membrane and 2D g-C3N4 NS intercalated rGO membrane prepared by the same method. The RhB removal mechanism on the as-prepared composite membranes under integrated photocatalytic filtration process is presented. Our findings offer new insights into designing and tuning laminar structures of photocatalytic graphene-based NF membranes for enhanced water purification.
AB - Crumpled laminar nanostructures with nanoscale water transport channels constructed by two-dimensional (2D) reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (rGO NS) have been considered as a promising membrane separation layer for water purification. However, efficient tuning of rGO laminar structures with enhanced membrane performance remains challenging. In this work, we report a novel 1D graphitic carbon nitride nanotube (g-C3N4 NT) intercalated rGO nanofiltration (NF) membrane with enhanced photo-induced self-cleaning performance. The g-C3N4 NT photocatalyst could not only enlarge the rGO interlayer spacing for improved water permeability, but also endow the composite membrane with visible-light photocatalytic activity for efficient removal of organic dyes from polluted water. Our g-C3N4 NT/rGO membrane exhibits superior water permeability (4.87 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1) and synergetic Rhodamine B (RhB) removal rate (>98%) for long-term operation, compared with pristine rGO membrane and 2D g-C3N4 NS intercalated rGO membrane prepared by the same method. The RhB removal mechanism on the as-prepared composite membranes under integrated photocatalytic filtration process is presented. Our findings offer new insights into designing and tuning laminar structures of photocatalytic graphene-based NF membranes for enhanced water purification.
KW - Carbon nitride nanotube
KW - Graphene oxide
KW - Integrated photocatalytic filtration
KW - Nanofiltration membrane
KW - Water purification
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053453276&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.108
DO - 10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.108
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85053453276
VL - 356
SP - 915
EP - 925
JO - Chemical Engineering Journal
JF - Chemical Engineering Journal
SN - 1385-8947
ER -