Bioinspired architected catalyst for efficient water purification: Bridging reactivity, reusability, and catalytic...

Achieving highly efficient water purification remains a formidable challenge due to intricate coupling among catalytic efficiency, mechanical robustness, and mass transport. Here, we create a bioinspired architected catalyst featuring microscale shell-based frameworks with atomically dispersed Mn-N₄ sites, fabricated by digital light processing and ultrasonic decoration. Their synergy-where the starfish- and bone-inspired architecture minimizes stress concentration for reusability and enhances pollutant-site contact for mass transport, while the Mn-N₄ sites facilitate •OH-mediated oxidation-collectively amplifies overall performance beyond the contributions of either component alone. Compared with conventional pellet catalysts, the architected catalyst exhibits a 22.1-fold increase in strength and a 4.56-fold increase in normalized reaction kinetics, resulting in more than 95% degradation with 0.08% active component consumption. It occupies the previously unattained region in the catalytic efficiency (K value) versus metal utilization (active component content) diagram of reported powder and supported catalysts. This work demonstrates a generalizable strategy for designing catalysts that unite reactivity, reusability, and catalytic component utilization.