Construction of Binary RGO/TiO2 Fibrous Membranes with Enhanced Mechanical Properties for E. coli Inactivation

For environmental remediation, it is significant to design membranes with good mechanical properties and excellent photocatalytic activity. In this work, RGO/TiO2membranes with heterogeneous structures and good photocatalytic efficiency were synthesized using the method of electrospinning combined with a thermal treatment process. In the binary nanocomposites, RGO was tightly adhered to TiO2fibers and by simply adjusting the loading of RGO, the strength and modulus of the fibrous membranes were improved. Notably, the RGO-permeated TiO2fibers exhibited 1.41 MPa in tensile strength and 140.02 MPa in Young’s modulus, which were 705% and 343% of the original TiO2fibers, respectively. Benefiting from the enhanced light response and the homogeneous and compact heterogeneous structure, the synthesized RGO/TiO2membranes displayed good antibacterial performance with a photocatalytic inactivation rate of 6 log againstE. coliwithin 60 min. This study offers a highly efficient alternative to inactivateE. colifor the synthesis of TiO2-based membranes.Keywords:RGO/TiO2;nanomembrane;photocatalytic;sterilization