Highly porous Ti4O7 reactive electrochemical water filtration membranes fabricated via electrospinning/electrospraying

Porous, flexible, reactive electrochemical membranes (REMs) for water purification were synthesized by a novel simultaneous electrospinning/electrospraying (E/E) technique, which produced a network of poly(sulfone) fibers and Ti4O7 particles as evidenced by scanning electron microscopy. Cyclic voltammetry indicated that the kinetics for water electrolysis reactions and the Fe(CN)64−/3− redox couple were enhanced by Ti4O7 deposition using the E/E technique. Membrane filtration experiments using phenol as a model contaminant showed a 2.6‐fold enhancement in the observed first‐order rate constant for phenol oxidation (kobs,phenol) in filtration mode relative to cross‐flow operation. Phenol oxidation in filtration mode was approaching the pore diffusion mass transfer limit, and was 6 to 8 times higher than measured in a previous study that utilized a ceramic Ti4O7 REM operated in filtration mode and is comparable to rate constants obtained with carbon nanotube flow‐through reactors, which are among the highest reported in the literature to date. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 508–524, 2016