Metal‐Half‐Salen Chemistry for One‐Pot Mineralization on Hydrophobic Polymer Membranes

ABSTRACT

Organic–inorganic composite membranes combine the advantages of polymers and inorganic materials, yet their fabrication remains challenging due to poor interfacial compatibility, especially on chemically inert hydrophobic substrates. Here, we report a one‐pot strategy to construct robust organic–inorganic composite membranes via metal‐half‐Salen chemistry, which enables simultaneous coordination and hydrolysis under a unified mildly acidic environment. Salicylaldoxime is used to effectively chelate metal ions, including Fe ³⁺ , Zr ⁴⁺ , and Mn ²⁺ , forming stable complexes that adhere to hydrophobic membranes through hydrophobic interactions and initiate controlled inorganic mineralization. This thermodynamically regulated process resolves the pH mismatch typically encountered in conventional metal‐phenolic systems. The resulting FeOOH‐coated membranes exhibit multifunctional performance, including 98.3% uranyl ion removal via synergistic adsorption and catalysis, 99.8% dye degradation through photo‐Fenton reactions, and over 99.3% rejection of oil emulsions due to enhanced surface hydrophilicity. This work offers a universal route for fabricating high‐performance composite membranes, highlighting the potential of metal‐half‐Salen chemistry for material interfacial engineering.