Graphene oxide/Fe(III)-based metal-organic framework membrane for enhanced water purification based on synergistic separation and photo-Fenton processes

Herein, a graphene oxide/MIL-88A(Fe) (GO/M88A) membrane was prepared for the first time by a facile vacuum filtration method. The intercalation of photo-Fenton catalytic M88A into GO nanosheets can not only regulate 2D nanochannels, but also endow the membrane with photo-Fenton catalytic activity. Accordingly, the GO/M88A membrane showed an enhanced separation efficiency and flux (more than 6 times that of GO membrane) based on synergistic separation/photo-Fenton processes. Importantly, the GO/M88A membrane maintained high separation efficiency (97.87 %) and almost constant flux even after 12 cycles of MB separation. The GO/M88A membrane can also be used to treat real textile wastewaters. Moreover, the membrane was directly used as catalyst for photo-Fenton catalytic degradation of contaminants with high degradation efficiency for MB (98.81 %) and BPA (97.27 %). Therefore, the results indicate that this novel GO/M88A membrane has excellent separation performance, stability and photo-Fenton activity and can be used as a potential membrane for water purification and environmental protection applications.