Nanofibrous Membranes from Catalytic Arene-Norbornene Annulation (CANAL)-Based Polymers for Scavenging Organic Micropollutants

Water scarcity continues to be a major challenge, and water pollution is continuously increasing due to population and industrial growth. Thus, quick solutions must be proposed for a clean water supply. In this study, rational design and computational tools were used to predict the binding affinities between 61 organic micropollutants (OMPs) and an emerging class of catalytic arene-norbornene annulation-based polyimides (CANAL-PIs) formulated into electrospun nanofibrous membrane adsorbents. Three intrinsically microporous CANAL-PIs were synthesized with a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 205-500 m² g^-1. The adsorption capacity was directly associated with the surface area of the nanofibers and the binding energy of OMPs. Roxithromycin displayed the highest adsorption capacity of 118 mg g^-1, whereas urea showed the lowest adsorption capacity of 16 mg g^-1. CANAL-PI-based electrospun nanofibrous membranes showed stable performance and excellent flexibility, robustness, and reusability over 10 adsorption-desorption cycles, indicating their great potential for environmental remediation.