Regenerating end-of-life membranes for enhanced sustainability and unexpected performance.

Chenxin Tian, Jiansuxuan Chen, Zhiwei Qiu, Ruobin Dai, Shihong Lin, Zhiwei Wang

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Can Tailoring the Polyamide Active Layer of the Desalination Membranes Ease the Recycling of End-of-Life Membranes for Seawater Pretreatment Applications.Polymers · 2026
Article

4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Chenxin Tian *State Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Green Resource Recycling, Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0007-8698-0052

Jiansuxuan Chen *State Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Green Resource Recycling, Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.

Zhiwei QiuState Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Green Resource Recycling, Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.

Ruobin DaiState Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Green Resource Recycling, Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. dairuobin@tongji.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8971-6838

Shihong LinDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9832-9127

Zhiwei WangState Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Green Resource Recycling, Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. zwwang@tongji.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6729-2237

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Membrane technologies are widely adopted in water purification, gas separation, resource recovery and chemical production. However, membranes eventually reach their end-of-life (EOL) due to structural degradation and irrecoverable fouling, leading to incineration or landfilling which contradicts the sustainability and circular economy principles. Here we present a strategy to regenerate EOL membranes through dissolution in organic solvent followed by re-casting. The regenerated membrane exhibits more than fivefold higher water permeance with improved pollutant rejection compared to the EOL membrane, and even outperforms membrane fabricated from pristine polymer powders. This enhancement is attributed to the integration of residual foulants as pore-forming agents and hydrophilic additives. Moreover, the reduced entanglement density of EOL membrane improves its compatibility with solvent and foulants, enabling the formation of a dense separation layer in the regenerated membrane. This strategy achieves 38.4% lower CO

Identifiers

PMID41803105

DOI10.1038/s41467-026-70415-1

PMCPMC13100192

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LicenceCC BY

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.