Single-Atom Cobalt Incorporated in a 2D Graphene Oxide Membrane for Catalytic Pollutant Degradation

-GO membrane efficiently degraded 1,4-dioxane, a small, neutral pollutant that passes through nanopores in single-pass treatment. The observed 1,4-dioxane degradation kinetics were much faster (>640 times) than the kinetics in suspension and the highest among reported persulfate-based 1,4-dioxane destruction. The capability of the membrane to reject large organic molecules alleviated their effects on radical scavenging. Furthermore, the advanced oxidation also mitigated membrane fouling. The findings of this study present a critical advance toward developing catalytic membranes with which two distinctive and complementary processes, membrane filtration and advanced oxidation, can be combined into a single-step treatment.