Titanium dioxide nanofibers integrated stainless steel filter for photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceutical compounds

•A photocatalytic metal filter was fabricated with electrospun nanofibrous TiO2.•PVDF layer effectively acted as a binder between TiO2 nanofibers and metal filter.•The photocatalytic efficacy of P-SSF was evaluated against pharmaceuticals.•The photocatalytic efficacy was highly dependent on water flux thru P-SSF.•Almost 90% of cimetidine was removed at a flux of 10L/m2h and 0.1–0.2kPa TMP. A photocatalytically active stainless steel filter (P-SSF) was prepared by integrating electrospun TiO2 nanofibers on SSF surface through a hot-press process where a poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanofibers interlayer acted as a binder. By quantifying the photocatalytic oxidation of cimetidine under ultraviolet radiation and assessing the stability of TiO2 nanofibers integrated on the P-SSF against sonication, the optimum thickness of the TiO2 and PVDF layer was found to be 29 and 42μm, respectively. At 10L/m2h flux, 40–90% of cimetidine was oxidized when the thickness of TiO2 layer increased from 10 to 29μm; however, no further increase of cimetidine oxidation was observed as its thickness increased to 84μm, maybe due to limited light penetration. At flux conditions of 10, 20, and 50L/m2h, the oxidation efficiencies for cimetidine were found to be 89, 64, and 47%, respectively. This was attributed to reduced contact time of cimetidine within the TiO2 layer. Further, the degradation efficacy of cimetidine was stably maintained for 72h at a flux of 10L/m2h and a trans-filter pressure of 0.1–0.2kPa. Overall, our results showed that it can potentially be employed in the treatment of effluents containing organic micropollutants.