Polymer Membranes Incorporating BiVO4/TiO2 Photocatalysts for Industrial Wastewater Harvesting and Conservation
摘要
The incorporation of photocatalysts into the polymer membrane appears as promising approach in industrial wastewater treatment for water harvesting and conservation. With increasing water system pollution by industrial waste, this calls for improvement in the development of innovative and sustainable water harvesting technologies. Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) as semiconductor photocatalysts have shown prominent efficiency in degrading organic pollutant under UV and visible light irradiation. This book chapter focuses on the development and application of polymer membranes incorporating BiVO4/TiO2 photocatalysts for industrial wastewater harvesting and conservation. BiVO4 as a visible-light-responsive photocatalyst can be coupled with TiO2 to form a BiVO4/TiO2 heterojunction structure to enhance charge separation and photocatalytic activity of the resulting material. This heterojunction structure can be incorporated into the polymer membranes resulting in improved separation, filtration, and photocatalysis performance in water harvesting and conservation applications. This dual combination ensures that wastes are photodegraded, filtered, and separated from the treated water. It also leads to reduced secondary contamination and enhanced polymer membrane stability for water treatment and harvesting. Therefore, BiVO4/TiO2–polymer membrane materials offer a dual highly effective platform for degrading and removing toxic organic pollutants, viz. phenols, dyes, thiazine, and emerging pharmaceutical waste, by rejecting and converting them into harmless by-products. This is also a valuable solution to challenges associated with suspended photocatalysts during posttreatment separation. Despite existing challenges, such as fouling and the scalability of membrane fabrication, continued research on polymer membranes, particularly those incorporated with photocatalysts, holds strong potential to deliver scalable, efficient solutions for industrial water treatment, harvesting and conservation.