Isoporous catalytic ceramic membranes for ultrafast contaminants elimination through boosting confined radicals

Catalytic membrane based oxidation-filtration processes (AOP-CM), a derivative concept of membrane process that combines physical separation and chemical oxidation, offers a high-efficient water purification strategy. However, the application of AOP-CM was still hampered by the low heterogeneous AOPs efficiency of catalytic membranes. In order to improve the heterogeneous AOP efficiency, an isoporous AlO_x/La₂CoMnO_6-δ ceramic membrane (IAPCM) with nano-confinement characteristics was prepared via sol–gel based block copolymer self-assembly route. Benefiting from the well-designed pore structure, IAPCM exhibited excellent pure water permeance (313 L·m⁻²·h⁻¹·bar⁻¹) and size-exclusion performance (complete rejection of MS2 phages with a diameter of ∼ 20 nm). With the addition of peroxymonosulfate (PMS), IAPCM achieved ultrafast degradation of organic micropollutants (e.g. atrazine, carbamazepine and sulfamethazine) at 0.5 bar (equivalent to a retention time of 4.3 × 10⁻⁴ s). Finite-Element analysis confirmed that high-concentration radical fields were generated in the confined nanoscale-pores within the isoporous La₂CoMnO_6-δ layer. The boosted mass transfer rates and high-concentration radical fields induced ultrafast degradation of micropollutants in IAPCM based oxidation-filtration system. This work highlights the significance of pore structure design for high-performance AOP-CM processes.