Construction of Binary RGO/TiO(2) 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/TiO(2) membranes 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 TiO(2) fibers and by simply adjusting the loading of RGO, the strength and modulus of the fibrous membranes were improved. Notably, the RGO-permeated TiO(2) fibers exhibited 1.41 MPa in tensile strength and 140.02 MPa in Young’s modulus, which were 705% and 343% of the original TiO(2) fibers, respectively. Benefiting from the enhanced light response and the homogeneous and compact heterogeneous structure, the synthesized RGO/TiO(2) membranes displayed good antibacterial performance with a photocatalytic inactivation rate of 6 log against E. coli within 60 min. This study offers a highly efficient alternative to inactivate E. coli for the synthesis of TiO(2)-based membranes.