Flow synthesis of a novel zirconium-based UiO-66 nanofiltration membrane and its performance in the removal of p-nitrophenol from water

Abstract

In this work, a thin zirconium-based UiO-66 membrane was successfully prepared on an alumina hollow fiber tube by flow synthesis, and was used in an attempt to remove p-nitrophenol from water through a nanofiltration process. Two main factors, including flow rate and synthesis time, were investigated to optimize the conditions for membrane growth. Under optimal synthesis conditions, a thin UiO-66 membrane of approximately 2 µm in thickness was fabricated at a flow rate of 4 mL·h⁻¹ for 30 h. The p-nitrophenol rejection rate for the as-prepared UiO-66 membrane applied in the removal of p-nitrophenol from water was only 78.1% due to the existence of membrane defects caused by coordinative defects during membrane formation. Post-synthetic modification of the UiO-66 membrane was carried out using organic linkers with the same flow approach to further improve the nanofiltration performance. The result showed that the p-nitrophenol rejection for the post-modified membrane was greatly improved and reached over 95%. Moreover, the post-modified UiO-66 membrane exhibited remarkable long-term operational stability, which is vital for practical application.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

UiO-66 membrane / flow synthesis / nanofiltration / p-nitrophenol removal

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21476039, 21878032 and 21076030).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-019-1819-y and is accessible for authorized users.

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