Experimental and computational assessment of 1,4-Dioxane degradation in a photo-Fenton reactive ceramic membrane filtration process

Highlights

• 1,4-Dioxane was degraded via the photo-Fenton reactive membrane filtration.

• Degradation efficiency and AQY were both enhanced in photocatalytic membrane.

• There is a tradeoff between photocatalytic degradation and membrane permeation flux.

• Degradation pathways of 1,4-Dioxane is revealed by DFT analysis.

Abstract

The present study evaluated a photo-Fenton reactive membrane that achieved enhanced 1,4-Dioxane removal performance. As a common organic solvent and stabilizer, 1,4-Dioxane is widely used in a variety of industrial products and poses negative environmental and health impacts. The membrane was prepared by covalently coating photocatalyst of goethite (α-FeOOH) on a ceramic porous membrane as we reported previously. The effects of UV irradiation, H₂O₂ and catalyst on the removal efficiency of 1,4-Dioxane in batch reactors were first evaluated for optimized reaction conditions, followed by a systematical investigation of 1,4-Dioxane removal in the photo-Fenton membrane filtration mode. Under optimized conditions, the 1,4-Dioxane removal rate reached up to 16% with combination of 2 mmol/L H₂O₂ and UV₃₆₅ irradiation (2000 µW/cm²) when the feed water was filtered by the photo-Fenton reactive membrane at a hydraulic retention time of 6 min. The removal efficiency and apparent quantum yield (AQY) were both enhanced in the filtration compared to the batch mode of the same photo-Fenton reaction. Moreover, the proposed degradation pathways were analyzed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, which provided a new insight into the degradation mechanisms of 1,4-Dioxane in photo-Fenton reactions on the functionalized ceramic membrane.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Photo-Fenton / Ceramic membrane / 1,4-Dioxane / Goethite

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51778306, 21906001 and 51721006).ƒ

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

ƒThe authors declare that they have no conflict of Interest.

Declaration and Verification

The work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis).

ORCID

Shan Xue: 0000-0001-7885-8419

Shaobin Sun: 0000-0002-3364-5687

Weihua Qing: 0000-0002-6624-9509

Taobo Huang: 0000-0003-0196-2976

Wen Liu: 0000-0002-6787-2431

Changqing Liu: 0000-0002-6114-3238

Hong Yao: 0000-0002-3652-0951

Wen Zhang: 0000-0001-8413-0598

Electronic Supplementary material

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