Dye removal by surfactant encapsulated polyoxometalates.

A novel surfactant encapsulated polyoxometalate (SEP) has been synthesized by using a simple ion-exchange reaction. The prepared SEP complex was found to self-assemble into nanospherical particles whose morphology and component were characterized by TEM and XPS. The SEP was further incorporated into polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to fabricate SEP incorporated composite membrane (SEP-M). Both the SEP and SEP-M exhibited excellent dye removal activities, which is for the first time reported as an intriguing property of the SEP. A regeneration scheme for SEP-M was successfully proposed without any loss of dye removal efficiency. Detailed mechanism studies were carried out to elucidate the nature of dye decolorization. Ion exchange was revealed to play a dominant role in the dye removal process. The current research not only renders a new example for the simple and direct synthesis of SEP but more importantly provides an efficient dye removal methodology.