Universal platform for rapid green surface functionalization of diverse porous membranes for sustainable water treatment

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Surface engineering is pivotal for tailoring membranes to complex water treatment processes, yet conventional strategies often involve multiple steps, toxic reagents, structural alteration, or specialized equipment. Here, we report a rapid, green, and universal surface modification strategy using Fenton-catalyzed hydrogel coating. Within minutes, an ultrathin cross-linked polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) network forms on porous membranes with diverse chemistries, pore sizes, and surface properties without altering their original pore architecture or porosity. The robust coating resists acid, alkali, heat, ultrasonication, and repeated folding. It enhances hydrophilicity, underwater superoleophobicity, and antifouling performance against oil-in-water emulsions, humic acid, and bovine serum albumin. The PVP network also enables uniform and stable deposition of carbon nanotubes, graphitic carbon nitride, MXene nanosheets, and titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The resulting composite membranes exhibit excellent long-term desalination performance. This simple, scalable, and eco-friendly platform provides a versatile route to advanced functional membranes for sustainable water treatment and resource recovery. Surface engineering is pivotal for designing water treatment membranes, though often requires unfavorable reagents and complex, time consuming procedures. Here, the authors develop a rapid and green surface-engineering strategy based on a modified polyvinylpyrrolidone network for water treatment membranes.