High-flux and high rejection TiO2 nanofibers ultrafiltration membrane with porous titanium as supporter

Both high permeability and high selectivity are advantageous for separation membrane materials. It is a huge challenge to fabricate a membrane that simultaneously possesses both high permeability and high rejection. Here, we fabricated a TiO 2 nanofibers ultrafiltration membrane by depositing hydrogen titanate nanofibers on a porous titanium substrate and sintering at 450 °C. The porous titanium supported TiO 2 nanofibers ultrafiltration membrane has a superhydrophilic separation layer and a high pure water flux of 940 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 . The average pore size of the TiO 2 nanofibers ultrafiltration membrane is 14 nm. The nanoparticles that particle size is smaller than pore size of TiO 2 nanofibers ultrafiltration membrane such as Bovine serum albumin (BSA, 11 nm) and 3 nm TiO 2 nanoparticles can be rejected with high permeation flux and high rejection efficiency. The obtained ultrafiltration membrane exhibits excellent antifouling property, the flux recovery ratio reaches to 97%. Also, the fouling of the TiO 2 nanofibers ultrafiltration membrane can be removed by heating treatment, the permeation flux of the membrane can be easily recovered.