Electrospun H4SiW12O40/cellulose acetate composite nanofibrous membrane for photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline and methyl orange with different mechanism

Wei Li; Tingting Li; Guangtao Li; Libao An; Fan Li; Zhiming Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.03.079

Electrospun H₄SiW₁₂O₄₀/cellulose acetate composite nanofibrous membrane for photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline and methyl orange with different mechanism

Carbohydr Polym. 2017 Jul 15:168:153-162. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.03.079. Epub 2017 Mar 24.

Authors

Wei Li¹, Tingting Li², Guangtao Li¹, Libao An³, Fan Li¹, Zhiming Zhang⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Material Science and Engineering, North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Inorganic Nonmetallic Materials, Tangshan 063009, China.
² College of Material Science and Engineering, North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Inorganic Nonmetallic Materials, Tangshan 063009, China. Electronic address: litingting2046@163.com.
³ College of Mechanical Engineering, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan 063009, China.
⁴ College of Material Science and Engineering, North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Inorganic Nonmetallic Materials, Tangshan 063009, China. Electronic address: zhangzhiming1942@163.com.

PMID: 28457436
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.03.079

Abstract

H₄SiW₁₂O₄₀ (SiW₁₂)/cellulose acetate (CA) composite nanofibrous membrane was prepared by electrospinning in which CA was employed as the support of SiW₁₂. Characterization with Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicated that SiW₁₂ has been successfully loaded into the CA membrane and its Keggin structure remained intact. The as-prepared composite membrane exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity in the decomposition of tetracycline (TC) and methyl orange (MO) compared with pure SiW₁₂ under ultraviolet irradiation. The optimal mass ratio of SiW₁₂ to CA was 1:4, and the corresponding degradation efficiency for TC and MO was 63.8% and 94.6%, respectively. It is noteworthy that the degradation rate of MO increased more evidently than that of TC under the same conditions, which may be attributed to the different role that CA nanofibrous membrane played in the TC and MO photodegradation process. Besides providing more contact area between SiW₁₂ and the pollutant in TC photodegradation, CA membrane played an additional role that donated electron to SiW₁₂ in the MO degradation process, leading to a different photocatalytic mechanism with greatly enhanced degradation rate. Moreover, the composite membrane presented an excellent reusability, which was mainly ascribed to the water-insolubility of CA and the hydrogen bonds between CA and SiW₁₂. This work will be useful for the design of biopolymer-based membrane photocatalysts applied to antibiotics and dyes wastewater treatment.

Keywords: Cellulose acetate; Electrospinning; H(4)SiW(12)O(40); Photocatalytic activity; Reusability.