Round-the-Clock Pvdf/Cuo-Vs4 Dual Layer Hollow Fibre Photocatalytic Membrane for Bisphenol a Degradation

Endocrine disrupting compound (EDC) namely bisphenol A (BPA) is toxic and has capability to give adverse effect towards health. The outflow of BPA into water bodies raised concern and suitable water treatment is needed. Photocatalysis is promising method nowadays to move towards green technology. The combination of copper (II) oxide-vanadium tetrasulfide (CuO-VS4) incorporated with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane as photocatalytic dual layer hollow fibre membrane (DLHF) was chosen in this study as novel energy storage photocatalytic membrane towards efficient degradation of BPA under visible light illumination. CuO and CuO-VS4 was synthesized via sol-gel and hydrothermal method respectively at different drying temperature and hydrothermal time. PVDF/CuO-VS4 DLHF photocatalytic membrane was fabricated using co-extrusion method by varying the ratio of CuO-VS4 and characterized for the morphology and properties as well photocatalytic test by collecting the sample from photoreactor. CuO synthesized at room temperature while CuO-VS4 synthesized at 12 hours hydrothermal time was chosen to be depositing into PVDF membrane matrix. The 0.25 PVDF/CuO-VS4 DLHF exhibit the largest pore size and uniform distribution of CuO-VS4 while photocatalytic activity achieved 70.19% and 73.24% of photodegradation and removal of BPA respectively. Around 53.09% of BPA successfully degraded after 120 min of analysis in dark condition for efficient energy storage capability. A novel PVDF/CuO-VS4 DLHF can act as preferential photocatalytic membrane for BPA removal and as potential energy storage material for wastewater treatment.