Heterostructured ZIF-67@α-MnO2 based nanofibrous membranes for highly effective removal of low-molecular-weight pollutants from wastewater

• A new heterostructured ZIF-67@α-MnO 2 based nanofibrous membranes were prepared. • The ZIF-67@α-MnO 2 nanoparticles had abundant active sites and enhanced charge transfer abilities. • The ZIF-67@α-MnO 2 NFMs possessed high adsorption performance and catalytic activities for AF. • The ZIF-67@α-MnO 2 NFMs obtained considerable dynamic treatment efficiency for AF-containing wastewater. In this work, a thorn ball-like three-dimensional (3D) heterostructured ZIF-67@α-MnO 2 catalyst consisting of ZIF-67 nanocages impaled by α-MnO 2 nanorods were robustly embedded in polyacrylonitrile nanofibers by electrospinning technique for highly efficient removal of low-molecular-weight pollutants (LMWPs, like dyes and antibiotics) from wastewater. Benefiting from abundant active sites and enhanced charge transfer abilities provided by ZIF-67@α-MnO 2 nanoparticles, the optimal ZIF-67@α-MnO 2 nanofibrous membranes (NFMs) showed a significant response towards acid fuchsin (AF) in terms of comparable adsorption capacity (2495 mg/g) and impressive catalytic activity (degradation degree of 99% AF within 20 min). In addition, the resultant membranes possessed satisfactory versatile catalytic activity toward tetracycline (95.3%), norfloxacin (98.4%) and doxycycline hyclate (89.2%). Besides, the resultant membranes had high permeability of 1302 L·m − 2 ·h − 1 driven by gravity and could efficiently treat 370.5 L·m − 2 AF (20 ppm), which was significantly higher than that of pure ZIF-67 NFMs (141.8 L·m − 2 ). The successful fabricating of such membrane with extraordinary adsorption and catalytic performance provided a promising approach for high-performance catalytic membranes.