Aditya Rianjanu, Sephia Amanda Muhtar, Hannah Faye M. Austria, Tarmizi Taher, Noto Susanto Gultom, Wibawa Hendra Saputera, Hutomo Suryo Wasisto, Fatwa F. Abdi, Wei-Song Hung, Januar Widakdo
The use of powdered photocatalysts in wastewater treatment presents several challenges, such as difficulties in recovery, aggregation during use, and poor reusability, which limit their effectiveness in large-scale environmental applications. To address these issues, we developed sustainable and reusable photocatalytic membranes comprising three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical lanthanum-doped rare-earth metal oxide nanorods integrated onto polyacrylonitrile/polyvinylidene fluoride (PAN/PVDF) nanofibers (La-doped RE-NFs). These hybrid composite membranes were fabricated by combining electrospinning and hydrothermal synthesis methods. The La-doped RE-NFs not only possess a high surface-area-to-volume ratio but also demonstrate superior photocatalytic efficiency for removing common target organic pollutants in water (i.e., Congo red (CR), methyl orange (MO), methylene blue (MB), and tetracycline (TC)). Here, the formation of the CeCO3F phase has contributed to the enhanced photocatalytic performance. From the kinetic analysis of the photocatalytic degradation, the rate constant (k) of La-doped RE-NFs in the MB removal test is 4.3 times higher than that of their undoped counterparts. Moreover, these proposed membranes exhibit excellent reusability, with only a ∼5% reduction in degradation efficiency after five consecutive cycles. These findings highlight the potential of La-doped RE-NFs as a highly efficient and reusable photocatalytic membrane material for environmental applications, particularly in water treatment systems. © 2025 RSC.
Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Technology, Institut Teknologi Sumatera, Terusan Ryacudu, Way Hui, Jati Agung, Lampung Selatan, 35365, Indonesia; Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Infrastructure and Regional Technology, Institut Teknologi Sumatera, Terusan Ryacudu, Way Hui, Jati Agung, Lampung Selatan, 35365, Indonesia; Advanced Membrane Materials Research Center, Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, 10607, Taiwan; Center for Green and Sustainable Materials, Institut Teknologi Sumatera, Terusan Ryacudu, Way Hui, Jati Agung, Lampung Selatan, 35365, Indonesia; Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, Jalan Raya Bandung-Sumedang 11, 45363, Indonesia; Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesha 10, Bandung, 40132, Indonesia; PT Nanosense Instrument Indonesia, Yogyakarta, 55167, Indonesia; School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, 16424, Indonesia
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