Issue 66, 2019

Reduced graphene oxide–metal nanoparticle composite membranes for environmental separation and chloro-organic remediation

Abstract

This study explores the integration of separation performance of rGO membrane with heterogeneous oxidation reactions for remediation of organic contaminants from water. Herein, an approach was introduced based on layer-by-layer assembly for functionalizing rGO membranes with polyacrylic acid and then by in situ synthesis of Fe based reactive nanoparticles. TEM characterization of the cross-section lamella of the membranes showed a high density of nanoparticles (12% Fe) in the functionalized domain, signifying the importance of polyacrylic acid for in situ synthesis of nanoparticles. The membranes exhibited a pure water permeability of 1.9 LMH bar−1. The membranes had low to moderate salt retention, and more than 90% neutral red retention (organic probe molecule, size: 1.2 nm). The membranes also exhibited high retention of humic acids (80%), preventing these organics from entering the reactive domain, and thus potentially reducing the formation of undesired by-products. A persulfate mediated oxidative pathway was employed to demonstrate the reactive removal of organic contaminants. The membranes achieved >95% conversion by convectively passing 2 mM persulfate feed at a transmembrane pressure of 0.4 bar. Successful degradation of TCE (up to 61%) was achieved in a single pass by convective flowing of the feed solution through the membrane, generating up to 80% of the theoretical maximum chloride as one of the byproducts. Elevated temperatures significantly enhanced persulfate mediated TCE oxidation extent from 24% at 23 °C to 54% at 40 °C under batch operating conditions.

Graphical abstract: Reduced graphene oxide–metal nanoparticle composite membranes for environmental separation and chloro-organic remediation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Oct 2019
Accepted
20 Nov 2019
First published
26 Nov 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2019,9, 38547-38557

Reduced graphene oxide–metal nanoparticle composite membranes for environmental separation and chloro-organic remediation

A. Aher, S. Thompson, T. Nickerson, L. Ormsbee and D. Bhattacharyya, RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 38547 DOI: 10.1039/C9RA08178J

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