In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a roadmap for international cooperation on sustainable development, with its economic, social, environmental and governance dimensions. Today, geopolitical developments make it essential to redouble efforts and address challenges for the rapid prototyping of advanced, environmentally friendly, low-cost and highly efficient photochemical devices.

One of the most promising technologies for water treatment today is photocatalytic membrane reactors (PMRs). They are considered a mature methodology for the immobilisation of semiconductors in photocatalytic processes, while their engineering is still unresolved. The challenge is related to the fabrication of photoactive membranes adapted to PMR configurations. In this sense, the project focuses on the creation of prototypes of photoactive membranes for their implementation in PMRs by means of fused filament fabrication (FFF), and the validation and demonstration of the additive manufacturing (AM) technology in a relevant environment.

In this regard, for water decontamination based on ceramic semiconductor (commercial TiO2) we proposed a colloidal method to self-support nanoparticles in a polymeric matrix of polylactic acid (PLA). The fabrication of a photocatalysts material of thermoplastic nature made the composite suitable for processing by additive manufacturing techniques. The first step is surface modification using a polyelectrolyte to ensure homogeneous dispersion of the particles in the new medium. Then, after wet mixing of the matrix-particle system heat extrusion are used to process the final parts. Catalytic activity is evaluated as a function of the degradation of a chemical indicator over time. The results indicate that the geometries printed by FFF achieve degradation rates for methyl orange of 100% after an exposure time of 2h, reaching 50% degradation after one hour of testing.