Rational design of high-performance continuous flow catalytic membrane reactor based on poly(4-vinylpyridine) brush-anchored Au nanoparticles

The catalytic membrane reactor (CMR) is recognized as one of the most effective strategies to treat the organic wastewater system. Yet so far, inefficiency, lack of bactericidal ability, and serious membrane fouling have limited its further application. In this study, we designed a novel polyacrylonitrile (PAN) catalytic separation membrane loaded with gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) via a facile photopolymerization method. The Au NPs on the catalytic separation membrane (PAN-Au) surface can serve as a high-performance catalyst, and the ligand of the 4-vinylpyridine (4VP) acts as an efficient protecting ligand for Au NPs to avoid leakage and agglomeration. The PAN-Au membrane was applied to CMR, which can one-step catalytic separation of nitrophenols and methylene blue efficiently in a flow-through mode (up to 97.5% over multiple cycles of reuse). Even after contamination with organic dyes, the PAN-Au membrane can still recover the catalytic separation performance by self-cleaning. Moreover, a remarkable antibacterial (with an efficiency of approximate to 100%) activity of the PAN-Au membrane, with a strong correlation with the small-sized and well-distributed Au NPs loaded on the membrane surface. The tremendous catalytical, self-cleaning, and antibacterial performance of the PAN-Au membrane provides new insights for the rational design of flow CMR for industrial applications.