Inorganic-organic Hybrid Membranes for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation and Volatile Organic Compound Degradation

• Published in: Procedia engineering Vol. 215; pp. 202 - 210
• Main Authors: Wang, Jing, Ong, Wei Li, Ho, Jie Hong, Ho, Ghim Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2017
• Subjects: CuO; hydrogen; photocatalysis; TiO2; VOCs; VOCs; hydrogen; CuO; photocatalysis; TiO2
• ISSN: 1877-7058; 1877-7058
• DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2017.11.010

In this work, we demonstrate a series of inorganic-organic hybrid membranes for efficient photocatalysis, which is capable of splitting water into hydrogen gas and degrading volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as ethanol and isopropyl alcohol (IPA), into harmless products. The membranes are achieved from casting solutions of organic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and inorganic nanoparticles (titanium dioxide and copper oxides) by a simple phase inversion method. The PVDF matrixes with highly porous asymmetric structures induce interconnected networks for anchoring the inorganic nanoparticles, and meanwhile warrant good water permeability and vapor diffusivity. Furthermore, an unconventional thermal oxidation approach is applied to fabricate copper oxides, the co-catalysts, which consist of mixed-phase CuO and Cu2O to suppress the charge-carrier recombination of TiO2, extend the light absorption of TiO2 to the visible rang and also increase the temperatures of the composite system. The hybrid membranes are able to generate hydrogen at a 6.2-fold rate and boost the degradation rates of VOCs by 6.7 times, as compared to that of the PVDF/TiO2 films. The integration of photocatalysts with polymeric membranes, which offers a simple and alternative way to recover and reuse the photocatalysts, has great potential in producing clean water and air as well as sustainable energy.