Efficient removal of methyl orange and ciprofloxacin by reusable Eu–TiO2/PVDF membranes with adsorption and photocatalysis methods

The presence of methyl orange (MO) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) in wastewater poses a serious threat to the environment and human health. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) are widely studied as photocatalysts for wastewater treatment. However, TiO2 NPs have the drawbacks of high energy required for activation, fast electron–hole pair recombination and difficulty in recovering from water. To overcome these problems, europium decorated titanium dioxide/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (Eu–TiO2/PVDF) membranes were successful prepared in this work by combining the modified sol–gel method and the immersion phase inversion method. The Eu–TiO2/PVDF membranes obtained with the increase of Eu–TiO2 NPs content during the preparation process were named M1, M2 and M3, respectively. The pure PVDF membrane without the addition of Eu–TiO2 NPs was named M0, which was prepared by the immersion phase inversion method and served as a reference. The prepared Eu–TiO2/PVDF membranes could not only adsorb MO, but also degrade CIP under visible-light irradiation. Moreover, the Eu–TiO2/PVDF membranes exhibited adsorption–photocatalytic activity towards a mixture of MO and CIP under visible-light irradiation. Last but not the least, the Eu–TiO2/PVDF membranes exhibited excellent recyclability and reusability, opening the avenue for a possible use of these membranes in sewage-treatment plants.