Porous Polymeric Membranes Doped with Halloysite Nanotubes and Oxygenic Polyoxometalates

Abstract Endowing anti‐fouling capabilities to water treatment membranes is a key feature for their long lifetime, but it continues to be a challenging task. Herein, a strategy for preparing composite membranes is reported comprising halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) as scaffolds to support a ruthenium substituted polyoxometalate (Ru 4 POM), with the goal of using evolved O 2 , resulting from the Ru 4 POM‐catalyzed H 2 O 2 dismutation, as anti‐fouling agent. Two different amino alkyl derivatives, that is, a phosphonate and a silane, are grafted, respectively, in the lumen and on the surface of HNTs to support Ru 4 POM, and the resulting hybrid nanostructures are compared, in terms of catalytic efficiency and stability, to establish the most promising membrane additive. Porous polyether sulfone–based membranes are thus prepared to obtain a first proof of concept for this doping strategy. With respect to the former Ru 4 POM‐containing membranes, HNTs provide Earth‐abundant and low‐cost scaffolds for their efficient dispersion in the polymeric matrix. Preliminary tests on permeability and anti‐fouling behavior are finally discussed.