Construction of CuO@CuS/PVDF composite membrane and its superiority for degradation of antibiotics by activation of persulfate

[Display omitted] •CuO@CuS/PVDF membrane was designed and fabricated.•CuO@CuS/PVDF membrane exhibited excellent activity by PS activation.•The practical applicability of CuO@CuS/PVDF membrane was investigated.•The reactive mechanism of CuO@CuS/PVDF-PS system was proposed. Antibiotics were frequently detected in influent of wastewater treatment plants (WTPs), which brought potential crisis to human beings and the environment. In this study, series of CuO@CuS nanocomposites were synthesized by co-precipitation combined with microwave treatment, which was employed to activate persulfate (PS) toward degrading tetracycline (TC). Results indicated that CuO@CuS with a molar ratio of 2:1 displayed the superior PS activation performance with TC removal efficiency. In order to further improve the recycle and utilization of nano-composites, CuO@CuS/PVDF membrane were constructed, leading to a greatly enhancement of TC removal efficiency (87.4%) within 3 h. Subsequently, physicochemical properties of CuO@CuS/PVDF membrane were characterized systematically. The effects of operating parameters, such as PS concentration, the initial pH value and co-existing ion on the CuO@CuS/PVDF-PS system were optimized in detail. The analysis results disclosed that when [PS] = 0.4 g/L, pH = 3, the system exhibited excellent degradation efficiency by elimination of contaminant solution. Furthermore, the enhanced mechanism of CuO@CuS/PVDF-PS system for organic pollutants elimination was proposed and confirmed, which was ascribed to the involvement of hydroxyl radical (·OH), sulfate radical (SO4·−) and singlet oxygen (1O2). Thence, the constructed membrane/PS system exhibited potential application in wastewater treatment.