Abstract
Phosphorene is a two-dimensional material exfoliated from bulk phosphorus and it possesses a band gap. Specifically, relevant to the field of membrane science, the band gap of phosphorene provides it with potential photocatalytic properties, which could be explored in making reactive membranes that can self-clean. The goal of this study was to develop an innovative and robust membrane that is able to control and reverse fouling with minimal changes in membrane performance. To this end, for the first time, membranes have been embedded with phosphorene. Membrane modification was verified by the presence of phosphorus on membranes, along with changes in surface charge, average pore size, and hydrophobicity. After modification, phosphorene-modified membranes were used to filter methylene blue (MB) under intermittent ultraviolet light irradiation. Phosphorene-modified and unmodified membranes displayed similar rejection of MB; however, after reverse-flow filtration was performed to mimic pure water cleaning, the average recovered flux of phosphorene-modified membranes was four times higher than that of unmodified membranes. Furthermore, coverage of MB on phosphorene membranes after reverse-flow filtration was four times lower than that of unmodified membranes, which supports the hypothesis that phosphorene membranes operated under intermittent ultraviolet irradiation can become self-cleaning.
Document Type
Brief
Publication Date
9-7-2018
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes8030079
Funding Information
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Cooperative Agreement No. 1355438, and by the NSF Kentucky EPSCoR Program.
Repository Citation
Eke, Joyner; Elder, Katherine; and Escobar, Isabel, "Self-Cleaning Nanocomposite Membranes with Phosphorene-Based Pore Fillers for Water Treatment" (2018). Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications. 54.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cme_facpub/54
Included in
Chemical Engineering Commons, Materials Science and Engineering Commons, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Commons
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Membranes, v. 8, issue 3, 79, p. 1-13.
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).