High-Throughput Metal Trap: Sulfhydryl-Functionalized Wood Membrane Stacks for Rapid and Highly Efficient Heavy Metal Ion Removal

Heavy metal pollution is a severe problem worldwide. Great efforts have been devoted in developing effective and eco-friendly ways to remove heavy metal ions from contaminated water. However, challenges remain in terms of the high cost, the complex preparation processes required, low efficiency, and difficulties in scaling-up. Here, we report a sulfhydryl-functionalized wood (SH-wood) membrane featuring three-dimensional mesoporous and low-tortuosity lumens, which serve as multisite metal traps to achieve highly efficient heavy metal ion removal from wastewater. Benefiting from the unique microstructure of wood, the resulting membrane exhibits a high saturation uptake capacity of 169.5, 384.1, 593.9, and 710.0 mg·g^–1 for Cu²⁺, Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺, and Hg²⁺ ions, respectively. Meanwhile, the SH-wood membrane can be easily regenerated at least eight times without apparent performance loss. Furthermore, stacking multilayers of the SH-wood filter is designed. Because of its high yet universal heavy metal ion absorbance capability, the multilayer SH-wood filter can effectively remove diverse heavy metal ions from real contaminated water, meeting the WHO standards while also displaying a high flux rate of 1.3 × 10³ L·m^–2·h^–1. Our work presents a promising strategy for the scalable and highly efficient removal of heavy metal ions from sewage for environmental remediation.