Super hydrophilic PVDF based composite membrane for efficient separation of tetracycline

To remove tetracycline from water with adsorption method, a new composite membrane had been fabricated through the anchoring of coordination complex modified polyoxometalate on ethylenediamine functionalized polyvinylidene fluoride. In this composite membrane, two components are fastened together firmly through chemical bonds. Compared with ethylenediamine functionalized polyvinylidene fluoride membrane, tetracycline removal performance of this composite membrane looks promising. When initial concentration of tetracycline is lower than 300 mg/L, the removal efficiency is higher than 98.3%. Meanwhile, composite membrane also exhibits excellent hydrophily with which leads to obvious enhancement in antifouling property. For composite membrane, the flux recovery ratio and irreversible fouling ratio are 94.35% and 5.65% respectively. Besides tetracycline, this composite membrane also exhibits excellent removal activity on other tetracycline type antibiotics, such as oxytetracycline and doxycycline. Furthermore, the adsorption property of composite membrane is well retained after continuous adsorption and desorption experiments, which illustrates it is stable for tetracycline containing water treatment. Finally, the influence of coordination complex modified polyoxometalate's content on tetracycline removal efficiency and antifouling property is discussed in detail. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.