Phosphate Elimination and Recovery Lightweight (PEARL) membrane: A sustainable environmental remediation approach

Significance The large scale of pollution requires solutions that are efficient and effective while meeting economic and engineering considerations. We report the Phosphate Elimination and Recovery Lightweight (PEARL) membrane, a nanocomposite that can be used to selectively and repeatably recover phosphate at will from contaminated waters. The PEARL membrane is made through a scalable, aqueous process. An inexpensive porous structure is coated with a slurry of nanostructures tailored for selective sorption of pollutants. Characterization of the PEARL membrane provides compelling scientific insights into its complex architecture and its binding of phosphate. The PEARL membrane approach is potentially general and versatile such that it can be tuned to remediate other contaminants with the same core principles of performance, scalability, reusability, and cost-effectiveness.