Dual role of silk fabric functionalized with polymer/GO-tungsten oxide nanocomposites as superwettable membranes and photocatalysts for removing dye contaminants and emulsion separation

Background: Wastewater containing hazardous dye contaminants has aroused significant concern and poses a great challenge to membrane technology. Herein, a novel bio-inspired silk fabric membrane modified with L-histidine functionalized polyglycidyl methacrylate composited with graphene oxide and tungsten oxide (amino-PGMA/GO-WO2.72) was successfully produced to treat wastewater contaminants. Methods: An urchin-like WO2.72 nanoparticle is synthesized using the hydrothermal method. The synthesized WO2.72 nanoparticles are composited with an amino-functionalized PGMA/GO via dispersion polymerization techniques. Finally, a flexible membrane is created by dip-coating silk fabric in the amino-PGMA/GO-WO2.72 nanocomposite solution. Significant findings: The fabricated membrane showed excellent superhydrophilicity, underwater super-oleophobicity, and outstanding performance in separating methylene blue (MB) dye-mixed emulsions under gravity with a high permeation flux of about 1690 +/- 40 L m- 2 h-1. The amino-PGMA/GO-WO2.72 modified silk fabric membrane showed remarkable stability, allowing the membrane to withstand a high separation efficiency of 99 %. Furthermore, the photo-responsive ability of the heterojunction GO-WO2.72 catalyst materials present in the modified membrane can lead to the reduction of toxic nitro phenols, degradation of various dyes and textile effluents wastewater with high photodegradation efficiency under UV--visible and solar light irradiation.