Fabrication of NH2-MIL-125(Ti) modified photocatalytic forward osmosis membrane for treating tetracycline hydrochloride and ibuprofen solution

Membrane-fouling in forward osmosis (FO) process has limited its application in drug-containing wastewater treatment. Advanced membrane coupled photocatalytic oxidation process has drawn growing interest. In this study, functional photocatalytic thin-film composite (TFC) membranes modified using metal-organic framework of NH 2 -MIL-125(Ti) (NM125) were prepared through simple blending during interfacial polymerization process. Due to the intrinsic hydrophilicity and photocatalytic properties of the nano-sized NM125, the modified TFC membrane (NM-6) demonstrates improved permeability-selectivity with a A/B value of 16.19 bar -1 , outstanding light-response functionality (the photocatalytic efficiency is 80.95 % for tetracycline hydrochloride (THC) and 66.76 % for ibuprofen (IBU)), and ∼100 % rejection of THC and IBU in nearly all the FO tests. Furthermore, NM-6 displays excellent operation stability with a 5 % water decline and 98 % water recovery for treating THC-containing feed solution under light irradiation (0.64 kW/m 2 ), while the control membrane of NM-0 showed 22 % of water decline and 85 % water recovery. Our membrane with the property of photocatalytic self-cleaning opens opportunities for developing next-generation anti-fouling forward osmosis membranes.