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Updated: Feb 1, 2026

Author Spotlight: Advancing 3D Coculture Systems with PVA-PCL Nanofibrous Membranes
Published on: December 27, 2024
Gravity-driven catalytic nanofibrous membrane with microsphere and nanofiber coordinated structure for ultrafast
Jianwei Wang1, Xiaoqiang Pei2, Ge Liu2
1Polymer and Composite Division, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, PR China; Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Centre for WEEE Recycling, WEEE Research Center of Shanghai Polytechnic University, Shanghai 201209, PR China.
Abstract:
Silver loaded nanofibrous membrane with high catalytic performance for 4-nitrophenol under continuous gravity-driven filtration was developed in this study. A polydopamine (PDA) microsphere and nanofiber coordinated composite structure was fabricated through an in situ PDA synthesis to achieve a high catalyst loading and controllable residence time of 4-nitrophenol. The incorporated PDA microspheres played an important role for the enhancement of catalytic performance due to the increased surface area (23% increase compared with PAN and PAN-PDAs-Ag) and reduced membrane porosity. Silver loading amount and the residence time of 4-nitrophenol was increased by more than 108% (from 1.2 wt% to 2.5 wt%) and 45% (from 0.79 s to 1.15 s) when comparing with PAN-PDAc-Ag and PAN-PDAs-Ag nanofibrous membrane. The conversion rate of 4-nitrophenol in a gravity-driven filtration process was as high as 97% when PAN-PDAs-Ag nanofibrous membrane was used, which was much higher than the PAN-PDAc-Ag membrane (80%). In addition, the PAN-PDAs-Ag nanofibrous membrane exhibited excellent recycle performance, the conversion rate was maintained as high as 93% after five times of reuse. The microsphere and nanofiber coordinated structure with enhanced surface area and controllable residence time of contaminants proposed in this study might advance the real applications of electrospun nanofibrous membrane for catalytic removal of contaminants.
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