Advanced Fiber Materials, Volume. 6, Issue 5, 00430(2024)

A Trimode Self-Cleaning Composite Membrane with an Eco-friendly Substrate for Energy-Saving Wastewater Recycling

Yuelin Yu1... Yongtao Yu1, Hongyi Wu1, Jian Shi1,3, Hideaki Morikawa1,2,3, and Chunhong Zhu1,23,* |Show fewer author(s)
Author Affiliations
  • 1Graduate School of Medicine, Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 3-15-1, Tokida, Ueda, Nagano 386-8567, Japan
  • 2Institute for Fiber Engineering (IFES), Interdisciplinary Cluster for Cutting Edge Research (ICCER), Shinshu University, 3-15-1, Tokida, Ueda, Nagano 386-8567, Japan
  • 3Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 3-15-1, Tokida, Ueda, Nagano 386-8567, Japan
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    A separation membrane with low or clean energy costs is urgently required for energy-saving and long-term service since electric energy generated from burning non-renewable resources will gradually cause a burden to the environment. At present, the conventional membrane being used in one mode is critical for a variety of scenarios in real life, which suffers from a trade-off effect, short service life, being difficult to recycle after damage. Herein, we report a trimode purification membrane composed of an eco-friendly polycaprolactone (PCL) substrate and functional graphene dioxide/polyaniline (GO/PANI) particles. Due to the photothermal transfer and photocatalytic properties of GO/PANI blend, the composite membrane can absorb 97.44% solar energy to handle natural seawater or mixed wastewater, which achieves a high evaporation rate of 1.47 kg m-2 h-1 in solar-driven evaporation mode. For the photocatalytic adsorption–degradation mode, 93.22% of organic dyes can be adsorbed and degraded after 12 h irradiation under 1 kW m-2. Moreover, electric-driven cross-flow filtration mode as a supplement also shows effective rejection over 99% for organic dyes with a high flux over 40 L m-2 h-1 bar-1. The combination of solar-driven evaporation, photocatalytic adsorption–degradation, and electric-driven cross-flow filtration demonstrates a prospective and sustainable strategy to generating clean water from sewages. A trimode self-cleaning composite membrane of bio-degradable substrate PCL and functional particles GO/PANI were successfully fabricated, which can purify natural seawater or mixed wastewater stably in solar-driven evaporation mode, handle organic dyes by reduction–oxidation chemical transformation in photothermal adsorption–degradation mode, and be applied in cross-flow filtration mode driven by electric as a supplement for rainy, cloudy days, or at night.

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    Yuelin Yu, Yongtao Yu, Hongyi Wu, Jian Shi, Hideaki Morikawa, Chunhong Zhu. A Trimode Self-Cleaning Composite Membrane with an Eco-friendly Substrate for Energy-Saving Wastewater Recycling[J]. Advanced Fiber Materials, 2024, 6(5): 00430

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    Paper Information

    Category: Research Articles

    Received: Jan. 23, 2024

    Accepted: May. 4, 2024

    Published Online: Nov. 14, 2024

    The Author Email: Zhu Chunhong (zhu@shinshu-u.ac.jp)

    DOI:10.1007/s42765-024-00430-8

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