Issue 21, 2022, Issue in Progress

Self-cleaning expanded polytetrafluoroethylene-based hybrid membrane for water filtration

Abstract

Membrane surface fouling is a key problem for water filtration. Compositing photocatalytic substances with a base membrane is a widely used strategy, but most of the membrane will be decomposed by photocatalysis. Herein, expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) with extremely stable chemical properties is grafted with polyacrylic acid (PAA) and then modified with titanium dioxide (TiO2) to realize a self-cleaning TiO2–PAA–ePTFE filtration membrane. It can recover its flux under UV irradiation after fouling. With 20 rounds of self-cleaning, the membrane microstructure still remains intact. Moreover, in addition to retaining bovine serum albumin, TiO2 particles on the membrane surface are capable of absorbing small organic pollutants and degrading them. Thus, this membrane is potentially used as an anti-fouling membrane for water filtration.

Graphical abstract: Self-cleaning expanded polytetrafluoroethylene-based hybrid membrane for water filtration

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Feb 2022
Accepted
22 Apr 2022
First published
04 May 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2022,12, 13228-13234

Self-cleaning expanded polytetrafluoroethylene-based hybrid membrane for water filtration

P. Liao, L. You, W. J. Zheng, W. Zou, J. Yan, H. Yang and F. Yang, RSC Adv., 2022, 12, 13228 DOI: 10.1039/D2RA01026G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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