Metal-Half-Salen Chemistry for One-Pot Mineralization on Hydrophobic Polymer Membranes

Organic-inorganic composite membranes combine the advantages of polymers and inorganic materials, yet their fabrication remains challenging due to poor interfacial compatibility, especially on chemically inert hydrophobic substrates. Here, we report a one-pot strategy to construct robust organic-inorganic composite membranes via metal-half-Salen chemistry, which enables simultaneous coordination and hydrolysis under a unified mildly acidic environment. Salicylaldoxime is used to effectively chelate metal ions, including Fe³⁺, Zr⁴⁺, and Mn²⁺, forming stable complexes that adhere to hydrophobic membranes through hydrophobic interactions and initiate controlled inorganic mineralization. This thermodynamically regulated process resolves the pH mismatch typically encountered in conventional metal-phenolic systems. The resulting FeOOH-coated membranes exhibit multifunctional performance, including 98.3% uranyl ion removal via synergistic adsorption and catalysis, 99.8% dye degradation through photo-Fenton reactions, and over 99.3% rejection of oil emulsions due to enhanced surface hydrophilicity. This work offers a universal route for fabricating high-performance composite membranes, highlighting the potential of metal-half-Salen chemistry for material interfacial engineering.