Electroactive Carbon-Doped Ceramic Membranes With Controllable Macrostructure and Microstructure Toward Efficient Dye Wastewater Treatment

Electroactive membrane filtration (EMF) technology is one of the most promising candidates for next-generation water treatment, and developing electroactive membranes with high catalytic activity and robust stability has become a major focus in the field. Here, a non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS)/carbonization strategy to fabricate carbon-doped ceramic (CDC) membranes is introduced, which enables precise control over the membrane structure as well as the active N doping sites and lattice defect content in the catalytic material. This structural optimization endows CDC membranes with high efficiency and stability in electrocatalytic organic pollutant degradation. Comprehensive characterization and theoretical calculations reveal that tuning the carbonization temperature significantly enhances the electrocatalytic properties of carbon materials by modifying nitrogen deposition sites and generating lattice defects. Using EMF, the optimized CDC membrane achieves over 99% dye removal efficiency with very low energy consumption (0.011 kWh m −3 order −1 ). Furthermore, the optimized small and uniform sponge-like pore structure imparts the CDC membranes with high mechanical strength, excellent antifouling properties, and long-term operational stability (>12 h). This study provides insights into the impact of both macro- and microstructural characteristics on EMF performance while elucidating the underlying mechanisms.