A general method for the fabrication of hierarchically-nanostructured membranes with multifunctional environmental applications

A general method for the fabrication of flexible, multifunctional and hierarchically-nanostructured membranes was reported. As an example, the as-prepared TiO2 nanorod self-supporting membrane shows excellent advantages, when it is used in concurrent filtration and degradation of the pollutants in waters, including high mechanical flexibility, high permeate flux, high photocatalytic activity and no membrane fouling problem, which indicate its great potential for sustainable environmental applications. And this general method also was successfully demonstrated with a ZnO nanoflake self-supporting membrane, which also have great potential in environmental and energy applications.

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► A general method for fabrication of multifunctional and hierarchically-nanostructured membrane.
► TiO2 nanorod self-supporting membrane shows excellent advantages for water purifications.
► High permeate flux, high photocatalytic activity and no membrane fouling problem.
► ZnO nanoflake self-supporting membrane was also fabricated using this general method.
► Both membranes have great potential in sustainable environmental and energy applications.