Supported growth of inorganic-organic nanoflowers on 3D hierarchically porous nanofibrous membrane for enhanced enzymatic water treatment

[Display omitted] •The hierarchically porous nanofibrous membranes are prepared by a simple template method.•The laccase hybrid nanoflowers are grown on both the surface and inter structure of the membrane.•This HNF-HPNM exhibit an excellent performance for dye removal. Organic-inorganic nanoflower is a new type of functional material that can effectively immobilize a wide range of enzymes to form flower-like structures for various enzymatic applications with enhanced catalytic performance and stability. In order to avoid the processing inconvenience and flower structure damage caused by the particular form of these hybrid nanoflowers during material fabrication and catalytic application, different substrates have been used to carry out supported growth of hybrid nanoflowers. However, all previously used substrates have only 2-dimensional feature and only incorporate hybrid nanoflowers on surface with limited nanoflower loading. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) hierarchically porous nanofibrous PVA-co-PE membranes (HPNM) are prepared by a simple template method for effectively immobilizing laccase-Cu2(PO4)3•3H2O hybrid nanoflowers. Compared with dense nanofibre membrane with only small sized pores (