Hydrophilic TiO₂@MWCNT/PVDF membrane for enhanced photodegradation of methyl orange in water

Abstract

Methyl orange (MO) is a colored dye and hazardous organic pollutant, which poses threats to human health and the environment. Photocatalytic degradation is widely used to remove MO in water because of its high efficiency and no harmful pollution products. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) catalysts has been limited by photogenerated electron/hole recombination. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) can improve the separation and migration rate of photogenerated electrons. The poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane with good flexibility, good connectivity and easy recovery, can be selected as carrier material for the photodegradation of MO in water. Here, the hydrophilic TiO₂@MWCNT/PVDF membrane was synthesized to photodegrade MO in water and showed excellent pollutant removal efficiency (80%). The novel TiO₂@MWCNT/PVDF membrane is a promising photocatalyst for degrading organic pollutants in water.

Keywords:

• Methyl orange
• photocatalytic degradation
• TiO₂
• MWCNT
• PVDF membrane

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.