Solar-driven Ag@NH2-MIL-125/PAES-CF3-COOH tight reactive hybrid ultrafiltration membranes for high self-cleaning efficiency

Efficient utilization of renewable solar energy is attractive in the membrane separation process of water treatment. In this study, a series of tight reactive hybrid ultrafiltration membranes were fabricated by covalently grafting Ag@NH2-MIL-125 nanoclusters on the side chains of a poly(aryl ether sulfone) matrix containing trifluoromethyl and carboxyl groups. Due to the homogeneous introduction of functional nanoreactors with high-efficiency solar photocatalytic degradation ability, the prepared tight hybrid membranes could approach good self-cleaning anti-fouling properties under sunlight irradiation. And the optimal sample exhibited an excellent water flux recovery ratio of 99.1% after irradiated by 10 min simulated sunlight. Additionally, the tight reactive hybrid membranes displayed excellent anti-aging robustness via the use of a fluorine-containing poly matrix, maintaining the stable high pollutant retention rate during the long-term ultrafiltration separation process. This work provided a new strategy to fabricate high-performance solar-driven reactive hybrid membranes for ultrafiltration separation processes. [Display omitted] •A series of high-performance, solar-driven tight reactive hybrid UF membranes were fabricated by intelligent molecular design to covalently combining nanoreactor and polymer matrix.•The renewable solar energy were efficiently utilized to achieve photocatalytic degradation ability of hybrid UF membranes by nanoscaled homogeneous dispersion of nanoreactor.•The optimal reactive hybrid UF membrane achieved near complete water flux recovery under 10 min simulated sunlight.