Carbon nanotubes intercalated RGO electro-Fenton membrane for coenhanced permeability, rejection and catalytic oxidation of organic micropollutants

Abstract

Abstract The application of electro-Fenton membrane for micropollutants removal is limited due to the trade-off between membrane rejection and water permeability. Herein, we fabricated a carboxylated carbon nanotubes (CCNT) intercalated reduced graphene oxide (RGO) composite electro-Fenton membrane with a 1.8-fold higher permeability (19.6\xa0L\xa0m−2 h−1 bar−1), a 1.9-fold higher rejection (61.1%), and a 2.4-fold higher removal rate (38.6\xa0mg\xa0m−2 h−1) of florfenicol. This coenhancement was attributed to the intercalation of CCNT, which significantly enlarged the interlayer distance and pore size of membrane, enhanced surface charge density and electrical conductivity. In addition, the consistency between simulated and experimental results of another six pharmaceuticals micropollutants verified the reliability of the four regression equations, which could be used to preliminarily predict applicability of the electro-Fenton membrane for removal of a specific pollutant. This study provides new insights into the design of high-performance catalytic membranes for efficient removal of micropollutants together with high water permeability, which makes it an attractive choice for membrane development in real scale applications.