Superhydrophilic/superoleophobic GO@CoSx photocatalytic membranes with excellent antifouling properties for efficient oil-water separation and organic pollutant degradation

With the development of industry, water resources have been seriously polluted, posing a great threat to human health and ecological development, and it is urgent to realize the efficient treatment of sewage-containing wastewater. The CoSx modified by thioacetamide grew in the interlayer of graphene oxide, which provided the composite membrane with self-cleaning ability, and at the same time enlarged the interlayer channels, which resulted in the flux and hydrophilicity significantly better than that of GO, and the retention rate of different types of oil-in-water emulsions was above 99 %. Encouragingly, the GO@CoSx-activated PMS system exhibited extremely high degradation performance for methylene blue. After 5 cycles, the flux of the composite membrane to the oil red-petroleum ether-oil-in-water emulsion under the light condition was higher than that under the dark condition, and the retention rate was kept at 99.93 %, with excellent antifouling performance. The com-posite membrane showed good degradation of methylene blue under alkaline conditions (99.84 %) and excellent removal of oil red-petroleum ether-oil-in-water emulsion under strong acid/alkaline conditions (99.37 %). The composite membrane has good chemical stability and mechanical properties for long-term use. This study will provide a new idea for the separation of oil-water emulsions, which has a broad application prospect.