TiO2 nanowire membrane for concurrent filtration and photocatalytic oxidation of humic acid in water

A novel TiO2 nanowire membrane was successfully fabricated using hydrothermal synthesis-filtration method. The fabricated TiO2 membrane had uniform thickness and was flexible to form into other shape modules. These nanowires were of 20–100 nm in diameter and had typical length in the range of several micrometers to tens of micrometers. The pore size of the TiO2 nanowire membrane was about 0.05 μm. The TiO2 nanowire membrane exhibited similar photocatalytic activity as commercial TiO2 powder (P25) on degradation of humic acid in water. In continuous experiment, TiO2 nanowire membrane achieved near 100% and 93.6% removal rate of humic acid and total organic carbon (TOC), respectively, via a concurrent filtration and photocatalytic oxidation. The TiO2 nanowire membrane also showed excellent anti-fouling ability owing to the photodegration of foulants by the TiO2 nanowire membrane.