The photodegradation of methylene blue in water with PVDF/GO/ZnO composite membrane

Dongdong Zhang; Fengying Dai; Ping Zhang; Zihan An; Yiping Zhao; Li Chen

doi:10.1016/j.msec.2018.11.049

The photodegradation of methylene blue in water with PVDF/GO/ZnO composite membrane

Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2019 Mar:96:684-692. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2018.11.049. Epub 2018 Nov 28.

Authors

Dongdong Zhang¹, Fengying Dai¹, Ping Zhang¹, Zihan An¹, Yiping Zhao², Li Chen³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, China. Electronic address: yipingzhao@tjpu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300387, China; School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China. Electronic address: tjpuchenlis@163.com.

PMID: 30606582
DOI: 10.1016/j.msec.2018.11.049

Abstract

The immobilization of photo-catalyst can effectively avoid the difficulty in recovery of the nano-catalysts after photo-degradation. In this work, PVDF/GO/ZnO composite membranes with photocatalytic performance for organic dyes were prepared by using zinc oxide (ZnO) as photo-catalyst, graphene (GO) as dispersant and poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane as carrier. The effect ZnO and GO on the structure, surface composition and photocatalytic activity of PVDF/GO/ZnO composite membranes were investigated. Owing to the strong hydrophilicity of the carboxyl group, the addition of GO enhanced the dispersibility of ZnO in PVDF membranes, which was proved by SEM results. Under Xenon irradiation (300 W), the photocatalytic degradation rate of PVDF/GO/ZnO composite membranes for methylene blue (MB) could reach 86.84%. Furthermore, the photocatalytic efficiency of the composites membrane for MB was evaluated with different initial concentrations of MB, pH value of the solution, and electron trapping agent-H₂O₂ content. And the radical trapping experiments with different active radical scavengers showed that the oxidizing species (O₂^-) plays an important role in the decolorization process of MB. In summary, this work provides an efficient method to improve the photodegradability of PVDF/GO/ZnO composite membranes and has great potential in the field of water purification.

Keywords: GO; MB; PVDF; Photodegradation; ZnO.

MeSH terms

Graphite / chemistry*
Membranes, Artificial*
Methylene Blue / chemistry*
Photochemical Processes*
Polyvinyls / chemistry*
Water Purification / methods
Zinc Oxide / chemistry*

Substances

Membranes, Artificial
Polyvinyls
graphene oxide
polyvinylidene fluoride
Graphite
Zinc Oxide
Methylene Blue