Araneose Ti3+ self-doping TiO2/SiO2 nanowires membrane for removal of aqueous MB under visible light irradiation.

Araneose Ti3+ self-doped TiO2/SiO2 nanowires (RTiO2/SiO2) were prepared and anchored onto a polyethersulfone (PES) membrane. Careful characterizations and measurements indicated a covalent grafting of SiO2 onto reduced TiO2 (RTiO2) through Ti-O-Si linkages, acquiring uniformed RTiO2/SiO2 nanowires of almost complete anatase and benign hydrophilicity. The RTiO2/SiO2-based PES membrane showed a significantly enhanced visible light-driven degradation rate of methylene blue (MB) (90.7%), compared with that on bare PES (11.1%) and PES-RTiO2 (59.6%) membranes. The residual MB in filtered water was less than 5% after reusing three times. The normalized permeate flux of the modified membrane was 0.83, and the transmembrane pressure only increased by 0.4 MPa under irradiation of visible light. The improved performance of the PES-RTiO2/SiO2 was attributed to efficient intercept of MB molecular, light harvesting of visible light, and separation of charge carriers on araneose RTiO2/SiO2 nanowires.