Sustainable Free-Standing imprinted membranes for simultaneous Resveratrol recovery and Soil-Health enhancing applications

Resveratrol (RES), a high-value bioactive compound, faces extraction limitations in conventional separation processes. This study reported a sustainable free-standing molecularly imprinted membrane (FMIM) fabricated through photoinitiated click polymerization on functionalized MnO 2 nanowires for simultaneous selective RES separation and soil quality enhancement. The FMIM was synthesized via UV-induced thiol-ene crosslinking, yielding a flexible, self-supported membrane with high-density and uniformly distributed recognition sites. The resulting MnO 2 -based MIPs exhibited an adsorption capacity of 48.60 mg g −1 for RES, outperforming the majority of common MIPs reported in the literature. Under cross-flow conditions, the FMIM exhibited high selectivity for RES over its structural analog caffeic acid (CA), achieving a cross-flow selectivity factor ( β ) of 9.05 compared to 6.07 for a PVDF-based MIM (PMIM), attributable to its localized high-density binding sites in FMIM. Importantly, the FMIM displayed dual functionality: efficient molecular recognition and soil remediation capability. Furthermore, the FMIM exhibited dual functionality by also contributing to soil health. In a 30-day soil incubation experiment, the MnO 2 component was found to mitigate nutrient loss and support microbial activity, resulting in a non-significant reduction in the soil multifunctionality index (SMI) of only 4.75% for the FMIM, compared to a significant reduction of 15.63% for the PMIM. This work provided a green strategy for designing multifunctional separation materials that align with sustainable chemistry engineering principles, offering potential applications in pharmaceutical purification and environmentally compatible agriculture.