Mechanistic insight into single-atom Fe loaded catalytic membrane with peracetic acid and visible light activation

Changrong Zhao; Bin Liu; Tingting Zhu; Xuewu Zhu; Xiaoxiang Cheng

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132506

Mechanistic insight into single-atom Fe loaded catalytic membrane with peracetic acid and visible light activation

J Hazard Mater. 2023 Oct 15:460:132506. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132506. Epub 2023 Sep 9.

Authors

Changrong Zhao¹, Bin Liu², Tingting Zhu¹, Xuewu Zhu³, Xiaoxiang Cheng⁴

Affiliations

¹ Hunan Engineering Research Center of Water Security Technology and Application, College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China.
² Hunan Engineering Research Center of Water Security Technology and Application, College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China. Electronic address: ahxclb@163.com.
³ School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan 250101, PR China.
⁴ School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan 250101, PR China. Electronic address: cxx19890823@163.com.

PMID: 37696210
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132506

Abstract

Advanced oxidation is an effective method for removing hard-to-degrade organic pollutants from water. In this paper, a novel structure of a single atom Fe anchored g-C₃N₄ (FeCN) membrane was proposed to remove pollutants from water by coupling membrane technology with photocatalytic and peroxyacetic acid oxidation. The presence of zero-dimensional Fe atoms in FeCN membranes allows for the removal of acetaminophen (APAP) in mobile membrane filtration systems without compromising permeation performance by simultaneously possessing visible photocatalytic capability and peroxyacetic acid (PAA) activation. Existence of inter-membrane domain-limiting conditions led to 100 % degradation of APAP within 10.5 ms, which is 5 orders of magnitude faster than conventional catalytic systems. Notably, photo-generated electrons/holes generated by light and HClO generated by Cl^- promote the conversion of Fe(V) and the removal of pollutants during the catalytic process. The spatial separation ability of the membrane catalytic layer surface mitigates the catalyst's passivation by macromolecular organics. Furthermore, surface photocatalysis of the membrane and interlayer catalysis generated by PAA mitigate the surface and interlayer pollutants of the membrane, respectively. This study explores a novel approach for the development of highly efficient atom-catalyzed membrane systems with multiple purposes.

Keywords: Catalytic membrane; High-valence Fe; Light-PAA; Single-atom.