Scalable conductive polymer membranes for ultrafast organic pollutants removal

Abstract Efficient water treatment by a membrane with enduring high permeability and rejection is still a challenge because of the commonly recognized trade-off effect and the pore-blocking induced fouling issue. Herein, the scalable production of electro-conductive polyaniline/polyimide membranes for electrocatalysis enhanced filtration is reported for the first time. The prepared membrane presents the following significant advantages: (1) superior dye-solution permeability (204.1 L m−2 h−1 bar−1) while not sacrificing selectivity (99.8% for congo red), which is benefited from the synergic interplay of the enhanced hydrophilicity, enlarged pore size and high adsorption active site; (2) elevated electrical conductivity by almost two orders of magnitude, leading to significantly improved permeability recovery rate (87%) and electro-oxidative pollutant removal; (3) optimal compatibility of the two polymers results in robust mechanical strength without micro-cracks, which realizes large-scale membrane fabrication without performance deterioration. These results indicate that the synergy of electrocatalytic polymers with robust filtration polymers through direct phase inversion strategy will provide a paradigm shift of designing high-performance membranes with practical applications.