Bone/muscle-inspired polymer porous matrix toughened carbon nanofibrous catalytic membranes for robust emerging contaminants removal

Catalytic membranes are able to conquer the hurdles of common heterogeneous catalysts via facilitated convection/diffusion–reaction process, which efficiently eliminate emerging contaminants (ECs) without secondary contamination. It is challenging to maintain steady advanced oxidation efficiency via rationally designing the robust nano-architectures of catalytic membranes. Inspired by tenacious bone/muscle structure, we for the first time synthesized polyvinylidene fluoride shells and micro-webs intensified carbon catalytic nanofibrous membranes (PVDF-CCNM) using a flash freezing route, achieving instantaneous ECs degradation (e.g. 98.9 ± 0.5% of tetracycline) and producing a massive water throughput (e.g. 29.4 × 10 3 L m −2 ) in 84 h under continuous cross-flow filtration, superior to state-of-the-art catalytic membranes. The resulted membrane showed a much higher apparent reaction constant value (1353.5 μmol g −1 min −1 ) during the dynamic filtration system than that (4.9 μmol g −1 min −1 ) in batch system, ascribing to forced convection and facilitated diffusion–reaction. Moreover, the resulted membrane exhibited strong resistance to various anions and broad pH range due to the 1 O 2 dominated catalytic degradation mechanism, which allows for remediating actual high-salinity coal chemical wastewater. This work highlights an innovative catalytic membrane design for robust and practical treatment of recalcitrant pollutants.