Coupling membrane and Fe-Pd bimetallic nanoparticles for trichloroethene removing from water

Abstract A novel composite membrane with membrane pores loading acrylic acid microgels coated by Fe-Pd bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) was prepared for the dechlorination of trichloroethene (TCE) in water. This membrane was prepared by firstly immobilizing acrylic acid microgels in poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane pores and then in-situ synthesis of Fe-Pd bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs). The Fe-Pd NPs coupled with the porous membranes enabled dechlorination to be conducted in a cross-flow model including a penetrative flow and a tangential flow. In such a model, a large number of dechlorination occurred in penetrative flow fluid while no dechlorination occurred in tangential flow fluid. Thus, products and reactants are always timely isolated in the cross-flow dechlorination process. The composite membrane prevents Fe-Pd NPs from contamination because its nanosize surface pores stop colloids and bovine serum albumin (BSA) from entering into the membrane interior. However, these small surfaces pores cannot slow the diffusion of reactants into membrane pores, and thus make the as-formed composite membrane also show a fast dechlorination rate in a batch reaction. All in all, TCE dechlorination by the composite membrane shows many advantages including the fast dechlorination rate, the convenient operation, the timely isolation of products from reactants, and the ignorable extra steps for separation of metal NPs.