Mechanistic models in wastewater-based epidemiology rely on robust in-sewer virus genome-signal decay parameters, yet most existing decay estimates are derived from bulk wastewater and neglect the role of suspended solids originating from sewer infrastructure. Here, we quantified the decay of an enveloped virus (porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, PEDV), an enveloped bacteriophage (Phi6), and a non-enveloped bacteriophage (T7) in suspended solids derived from sewer biofilms (BF-SS) and sediments (SD-SS), and compared them with raw wastewater (WW) across temperatures from 4 to 35 °C. Biofilm- and sediment-derived suspended solids significantly accelerated virus genome-signal decay relative to raw wastewater, contributing 34.32-44.15 % and 27.98-41.75 % of the total decay, respectively, under the tested solids conditions and controlled matrix preparation. Elevated temperatures increased decay rates by approximately 2-3 times across all matrices. Integrating these kinetics, we developed a temperature-dependent comprehensive decay model (T-CMD) that jointly represents virus genome-signal decay in wastewater, biofilm-derived, and sediment-derived suspended solids. The T-CMD exhibited 2.2-3.0-fold higher temperature sensitivity compared with wastewater-only models, indicating that neglecting suspended solids leads to systematic underestimation of in-sewer virus genome-signal loss. These findings identify biofilm and sediment-sourced suspended solids as major drivers of virus genome-signal decay in sewers and provide a mechanistic framework to refine sewer process models and improve the accuracy of wastewater-based epidemiology for public health surveillance.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas emitted from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, the origins of emitted N2O remain insufficiently understood, and emissions from primary treatment processes are often overlooked due to methodological limitations. In this study, N2O emissions were monitored at seven WWTPs across China using zonal odor control systems to obtain spatially resolved measurements. The average N2O emission factors ranged from 0.014% to 0.122%, with either primary or biological treatment process serving as the dominant contributor depending on plant conditions. To further characterize emissions from different emission zones, intensive monitoring covering both diurnal and seasonal variations was conducted at two representative WWTPs. In the biological-dominant plant, influent NH4+-N loads exhibited a strong positive correlation with N2O emission rates in aerobic treatment (ρ=0.866, p < 0.01). In the primary-dominant plant, N2O transported from the sewer system accounted for 104-168% of total full-scale emissions, which was likely due to N2O consumption via denitrification in the anaerobic and anoxic treatment. Meanwhile, on-site batch experiments revealed that primary treatment also generated N2O, with microbial production contributing 43.6% of total gaseous emissions from the primary treatment. Elevated emissions were observed during winter months at this plant. Overall, this study highlights the substantial and previously underestimated contribution of primary treatment to N2O emissions and provides new insight into identifying emission hotspots and understanding N2O formation mechanisms in WWTPs.

Spiral wound membrane (SWM) modules are vital for water purification technologies but suffer from performance degradation caused by membrane fouling. Existing studies on SWM feed spacer designs predominantly target single-type fouling mitigation (e.g., biofouling), lacking cross-comparative assessment of different fouling challenges. This study investigates how geometric modifications of columnar-node feed spacers regulate hydrodynamic conditions to combat inorganic scaling and biofouling differentially via combined numerical and experimental approaches. Our results reveal that spacer architectures dictate resistance to fouling through divergent hydrodynamic mediation pathways. The triangular mesh configurations demonstrated superior scaling mitigation performance by enhancing shear stress and solute mass transfer efficiency to suppress concentration polarization, while the diamond-shaped columnar-node design effectively minimized biofouling through reduced hydraulic stagnant zones that typically facilitate microbial adhesion. The hexagonal architectures exacerbated both fouling types due to inadequate fluid mixing, highlighting critical trade-offs between turbulence generation and hydraulic resistance. Overall, the spacer design for scaling control should enhance mass transfer efficiency, while that for biofouling inhibition is suggested to diminish the proportion of low-velocity regions in the feed channel. These insights establish a mechanistic foundation for developing specialized feed spacers that target dominant fouling challenges, advancing the rational design of SWM modules across diverse water treatment applications.

Thermal constraints in cold regions suppress biological treatment, increase energy demand, and elevate greenhouse gas emissions of existing wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), and remain a major barrier to the deployment of adequate sanitation infrastructure in many cold-region communities. Where geothermal resources exist, low-enthalpy hydrothermal heat is well matched to this energy gap. Yet, WWTPs are underrecognized anchors for broader geothermal deployment. We reframe geothermal-WWTP integration as a system-level enabler that benefits both parts. Using three cascaded configurations for a full-scale WWTP, a rapid techno-economic analysis identifies three trends: energy and carbon savings/revenues alone are insufficient under realistic policy stacks, whereas crediting the upgrade-deferral value of geothermally enhanced treatment makes the project economically favourable across most policy scenarios. The opportunity is greatest in cold, remote, and underserved communities, where local geothermal resources, treatment intensification, and community-scale demand together carry a case that no single driver could sustain alone.

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are pivotal for urban water recycling, but membrane fouling remains a ubiquitous challenge. Advancing fouling control from outcome-based reactive cleaning to property-based proactive prevention is crucial for the sustainable operation of MBRs. This necessitates real-time monitoring of foulants, especially dissolved organic foulants. This study introduces an online ultraviolet-visible and fluorescence spectroscopic system, utilizing a flow cuvette, optical fibers, and a miniature spectrometer, to capture the real-time properties of dissolved organic matter. The established correlation between spectral fingerprints and fouling trends enabled a feedforward control strategy at lab-scale. Results demonstrated that both feedforward adjustments to the filtration-relaxation mode (FRM) and aeration rate (AR) effectively mitigated fouling. The FRM adjustment was effective in mitigating overall fouling, while the AR adjustment mitigated both overall and cycle-irreversible fouling at a lower energy cost. Specifically, the feedforward AR reduced total aeration by 24.2%. This study confirms the viability of spectral fingerprints-based early warning for proactive fouling control, advancing refined operation and targeted fouling mitigation in MBRs. It also demonstrates a practical strategy for the intelligent, energy-efficient operation of MBR systems.

Transition metal phosphides have attracted considerable attention as alternative conversion-type anodes for SIBs because of their high specific capacities. However, their sodium-storage mechanism typically shifts to an alloying reaction between P and Na+ after the initial sodiation process, leading to rapid capacity decay. Herein, we report a highly reversible conversion reaction of Co2P in SIBs by confining ultrasmall Co2P nanoparticles within Ti3C2Tx MXene interlayers. The resulting composites exhibit greatly improved sodium-storage performance, including a high reversible capacity (562 mAh g-1 at 0.2 A g-1 after 200 cycles), excellent rate capability (288 mAh g-1 at 10 A g-1), outstanding energy density (291 Wh kg-1), and cycling stability (84% capacity retention over 1000 cycles at 2 A g-1) in full cells, representing the best performance reported for Co2P anodes to date. In situ and ex situ analyses reveal that MXene confinement enables highly reversible conversion reactions in Co2P anodes.

Achieving highly efficient water purification remains a formidable challenge due to intricate coupling among catalytic efficiency, mechanical robustness, and mass transport. Here, we create a bioinspired architected catalyst featuring microscale shell-based frameworks with atomically dispersed Mn-N4 sites, fabricated by digital light processing and ultrasonic decoration. Their synergy-where the starfish- and bone-inspired architecture minimizes stress concentration for reusability and enhances pollutant-site contact for mass transport, while the Mn-N4 sites facilitate •OH-mediated oxidation-collectively amplifies overall performance beyond the contributions of either component alone. Compared with conventional pellet catalysts, the architected catalyst exhibits a 22.1-fold increase in strength and a 4.56-fold increase in normalized reaction kinetics, resulting in more than 95% degradation with 0.08% active component consumption. It occupies the previously unattained region in the catalytic efficiency (K value) versus metal utilization (active component content) diagram of reported powder and supported catalysts. This work demonstrates a generalizable strategy for designing catalysts that unite reactivity, reusability, and catalytic component utilization.

Membrane fouling remains a major challenge in water treatment, yet the lack of standardized evaluation methods has led to inconsistent conclusions regarding the key membrane properties governing antifouling performance. To address this gap, we systematically fabricated 97 microfiltration/ultrafiltration membranes with precisely controlled hydrophilicity (water contact angle 18°-106°), pore size (0.03-4.80 μm), surface roughness (Ra = 20-276 nm, 10 × 10 μm2), and zeta potential (-34 to -2 mV) via blending, grafting, and nanocasting. Using a stage-resolved membrane fouling assessment framework, we quantified the dominant factors influencing initial fouling rate, long-term permeability stability, and cleaning efficiency. Key findings reveal that water permeability, which is directly correlated with pore size (ρ = 0.526) and roughness (ρ = 0.386), significantly accelerates initial fouling (ρ = 1.150). While hydrophilicity mitigates initial-stage fouling, it may concurrently reduce cleaning efficiency. This is because hydrophilic loading could endow the membrane surface with high surface energy and elevate the absolute zeta potential value, and this synergy exacerbates irreversible foulant adsorption via strengthened interfacial interactions. Surface roughness indirectly impaired cleaning by enhancing permeability, whereas larger pores improved cleaning efficiency despite lowering normalized permeability (ρ = -1.077). This study establishes a multivariate optimization framework that transcends the conventional hydrophilicity-centric design paradigm, clarifying hydrophilicity's stage-dependent dual effects and the interdependent regulatory roles of membrane properties across distinct fouling stages, offering targeted guidance for the rational design of next-generation antifouling membranes.

Polyamide thin-film composite membranes are critically important in combating global water scarcity. However, simultaneously achieving ultrafast water permeation and high solute rejection remains challenging due to their thick, dense separation layers. Herein, we demonstrate a simple yet versatile strategy to modulate the nanostructure of the polyamide separation layer, particularly the abundance and interconnectivity of free volume, by adopting well-designed aqueous monomers. The key is introducing methyl groups onto the conventional piperazine monomers, which accelerates trans-interfacial diffusion and decreases the ensuing amidation reaction rate. This leads to the formation of a thinner separation layer composed of more linear polyamide fragments, where the methyl groups, serving as "molecular pillar" sites, weaken the intra- and interchain interactions to prevent their dense stacking, thereby creating a more interconnected free volume network. One prepared membrane exhibits a very high water permeance of 57.8 ± 2.8 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 along with a satisfactory per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance rejection over 90%, as well as superior resistance to compression. This molecular-level microstructural engineering provides a new route and fundamental insights into the scalable production of high-performance separation membranes for emerging contaminant removal.

Abstract Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are widely applied in municipal wastewater treatment, yet their broader adoption has been constrained by energy-intensive aeration and membrane fouling. Here, we report approximately 800 consecutive days of full-scale (7500 m3 d−1) parallel operation of the vibrating MBR (VMBR) and the conventional aerated MBR (AMBR) systems, systematically comparing their pollutant removal performance, long-term filtration stability, membrane fouling mechanisms, and full life cycle environmental impacts. Results showed that the VMBR demonstrated enhanced nutrient removal, lowering effluent total nitrogen by 22% and reducing the chemical dosage for phosphorus removal by 40% compared with the AMBR. It also exhibited enhanced fouling resistance, with a 20% higher average specific flux than that of the AMBR throughout the operation. Mechanism analysis revealed that the VMBR generated effective, uniform shear at the membrane surface while preserving the sludge floc structure, thereby mitigating membrane fouling. Consequently, the VMBR reduced specific energy consumption for fouling control by 75% and the overall carbon footprint by 30%. We validate that VMBRs represent a scalable, energy-efficient and sustainable technology for future wastewater treatment.

Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes have shown great potential in water treatment, but controlling toxic intermediates during degradation remains challenging. In this study, an electrocatalytic dual-membrane filtration (EDMF) system with tunable electrode configuration was constructed to regulate the redox sequence in 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) degradation. By alternating the electrode order-anode-cathode (A-C) vs. cathode-anode (C-A)-we systematically investigated the influence of configuration on degradation efficiency, reaction pathway selection, and environmental safety. The dual-membrane systems significantly outperformed single-electrode configurations, achieving over 80% 4-CP removal at 3 V. While the A-C configuration exhibited high center dot OH and 1O2-mediated oxidation, the C-A configuration followed a sequential reduction-oxidation mechanism, where cathodic reduction preferentially cleaved the C-Cl bond before anodic oxidation. Quenching experiments, electron paramagnetic resonance, and density functional theory calculations confirmed that the highest occupied molecular orbital / lowest unoccupied molecular orbital distribution of 4-CP rationalizes the pathway selectivity. Although both configurations achieved high dechlorination, the C-A system markedly reduced the accumulation of toxic chlorinated intermediates, leading to lower acute toxicity, mutagenicity, and bioaccumulation potential of transformation products. These findings highlight electrode sequence as a key design parameter to balance efficiency and safety, providing a new strategy for electrocatalytic treatment of halogenated organic pollutants.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of refractory industrial wastewater remains challenging due to structural recalcitrance and thermodynamic limitations. While abiotic-biotic hybrid systems incorporating electroactive materials (EMs) offer promise, their long-term efficacy and mechanisms at a system level, particularly with real industrial waste streams, are underexplored. This study demonstrates the sustained, system-level enhancement of anaerobic valorization using magnetite (Mag)- or pyrogenic carbon (PC)-amended reactors during 140-day continuous operation treating real membrane-making wastewater laden with N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). EMs-augmented systems achieved superior COD removal of 75.5% or 67.0% and methane production of 255 or 228 mL/(g VSS·day), respectively, at an organic loading rate of 10.0 g COD/(L·day), representing an 88.5% or 68.6% increase in methanogenesis over the control. The enhancement stemmed from EMs synergistically boosting enzymatic hydrolysis to deconstruct refractory amide bonds and conjugated structures, and redirecting interspecies electron transfer (IET) pathways with greater efficiency and conductivity. Mag excelled under shock loads due to conductive Fe(III/II) lattice, whereas PC performed better under moderate loads leveraging pseudocapacitive functionalities. Microbial evolution revealed EM-specific colonization of hydrolytic/acidogenic consortia and IET-active methanogens. Metagenomic reconstruction indicated EMs enhanced cleavage of recalcitrant bonds, redirected DMF biodegradation toward (di)methylamine dehydrogenases-catalyzed hydrolysis pathway, and stimulated CO2-reducing/acetoclastic methanogenesis. Furthermore, EMs appeared to reconstruct intra-extracellular IET channels via membrane-spanning redox-active complexes, reinforcing energy conservation and stress resilience while channeling electrons from fermentation to methanogenesis. These findings establish a sustainable strategy for valorizing recalcitrant wastewater into bioenergy, offering insights into microbial electron flux redirection in abiotic-biotic systems.

Hollow-fiber bubble-free aeration membranes (HBAMs) offer large specific surface area and molecular oxygen transfer, enhancing gas-liquid oxygen transfer efficiency (OTE) and reducing energy consumption, which are promising in membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) for wastewater treatment but lack of systematic studies on oxygen transfer characteristics. Three commercial dense HBAMs were evaluated by clean water oxygenation tests via membrane only under air flow-through aeration using gas-phase method (i.e., membrane lumen inlet and outlet oxygen flow measurement) and liquid-phase method (i.e., bulk-water dissolved oxygen measurement). Both oxygen transfer rate (OTR) and aeration efficiency (AE) from gas-phase measurement were around 7 times more than liquid-phase measurement, which derived from high mass transfer resistance and oxygen oversaturation in viscous sublayer on membrane surface. For air flow-through aeration via constant-power blower, OTR showed linear increase followed by continuous decrease with membrane lumen relative pressure, yielding an optimal range of 7-10 kPa with maximum OTR of 32.8, 144.9, 17.6 gO2·(m2·d)-1 for membrane A, B, C. AE and OTE showed negative and positive correlation with lumen pressure. Oxygen permeance (i.e., linear slope of oxygen flux versus absolute oxygen pressure) was 14.2, 41.9, 4.7 GPU for membrane A, B, C. Under pure oxygen dead-end/flow-through aeration, membrane B achieved maximum OTR of 1415.1/1669.8 gO2·(m2·d)-1 and oxygen permeance of 27.7/63.2 GPU. Pure oxygen flow-through aeration could sweep the back-diffused water vapor and nitrogen in membrane lumen and fully utilize membrane polymers, both improving oxygen transfer capability. Gas-phase measurement is recommended for HBAMs evaluation and variable-frequency blower is suggested to maximize oxygen transfer performance of HBAMs in MABR application.

Pharmaceutical wastewater is highly toxic and poorly biodegradable, inhibiting biological nitrogen removal in conventional processes. This study compared a typical membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) and an MABR with suspended sludge (S-MABR) for treating synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater containing N,N-diethylaniline and N-ethylaniline. Across seven operational stages, both reactors sustained COD removals >80%, whereas NH4+-N removal in MABR deteriorated markedly as pollutants loading increased, confirming nitrifiers' sensitivity to pharmaceutical organic shocks. Besides, the MABR achieved lower effluent TN in non-inhibitory stages, while under elevated pollutants concentrations, the S-MABR delivered better nitrogen and pollutants removal, showing superior resilience. Increasing lumen aeration from 150 to 300 mL & centerdot;min(-)(1) improved nitrification in both systems, though further increases had limited effect due to oxygen-transfer constraints. To address the excess biofilm thickness and consequent mass-transfer resistance exacerbated by suspended heterotrophs, high-frequency air scouring was implemented, sharply reducing effluent ammonium and narrowing performance gaps between reactors. Batch assays showed nitrification was biofilm-dominant, while suspended sludge rapidly degraded pharmaceutical compounds. Microbial analyses revealed a synergic effect of biofilm and suspended sludge in S-MABR through adsorption and degradation of inhibitory pollutants by suspended sludge to protect nitrifiers in the biofilm, resulting in superior resilience. Community structure and EPS analyses found that S-MABR formed thicker, protein-rich matrices and more diverse consortia in biofilm. Metagenomics indicated divergent nitrogen removal pathways and higher monooxygenase gene abundance in S-MABR, supporting improved shock tolerance. Practically, S-MABR can retrofit existing anoxic tanks without additional liquid-solid separation units, offering a robust, scalable option for real pharmaceutical wastewater treatment.

Monitoring biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) decay offers critical insights into the aerobic biodegradation of dissolved organic matter (DOM). Focusing on the accumulated metabolites generated during DOM biodegradation, this study introduces novel fluorescence parameters that facilitate the rapid monitoring of BOD decay throughout the entire DOM degradation process until BOD is depleted. BOD decay during degradation of four synthetic DOM samples was first investigated (initial BOD < 10 mg/L) and showed a S-shaped decay pattern with excellent goodness of fit (R2 > 0.93; p < 0.001). In contrast, critical spectral signals intensified also in the S-shaped pattern, of which the transition phase converged temporally with BOD decay (time difference < 0.7 d), demonstrating that chromophore-bearing metabolites accumulated synchronously with BOD decay. Pearson analysis further corroborated the highly significant correlations between BOD and spectral signals derived from metabolites throughout the process of DOM degradation. According to Pearson analysis, three metabolite-derived fluorescence parameters were yielded based on three newly specified fluorescence regions related to metabolites (mean r ≈ −0.70; p < 0.05). With a real water sample, we confirmed that these metabolite-derived fluorescence parameters outperformed traditional fluorescence parameters in tracking BOD decay, with a higher R2 in multiple linear regression (R2 > 0.8; p < 0.001). The findings present a promising approach for rapid tracking and early warning of BOD decay during DOM degradation, potentially contributing to water quality management.

ABSTRACT Transition metal phosphides have attracted considerable attention as alternative conversion‐type anodes for SIBs because of their high specific capacities. However, their sodium‐storage mechanism typically shifts to an alloying reaction between P and Na + after the initial sodiation process, leading to rapid capacity decay. Herein, we report a highly reversible conversion reaction of Co 2 P in SIBs by confining ultrasmall Co 2 P nanoparticles within Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene interlayers. The resulting composites exhibit greatly improved sodium‐storage performance, including a high reversible capacity (562 mAh g −1 at 0.2 A g −1 after 200 cycles), excellent rate capability (288 mAh g −1 at 10 A g −1 ), outstanding energy density (291 Wh kg −1 ), and cycling stability (84% capacity retention over 1000 cycles at 2 A g −1 ) in full cells, representing the best performance reported for Co 2 P anodes to date. In situ and ex situ analyses reveal that MXene confinement enables highly reversible conversion reactions in Co 2 P anodes.

Illicit industrial discharges into urban sewer networks pose a severe threat to water security, yet source tracking is hindered by data scarcity within the network and model opacity. This study developed an interpretable framework for pollutant profiling and industrial source tracking (InF-PaT). To address the challenge of sparse and imbalanced pollution data, InF-PaT fused multi-source data and introduced a comprehensive feature engineering workflow that leveraged a generative adversarial network to augment the training dataset. This workflow was complemented by Savitzky-Golay filtering and principal component analysis to extract robust features from high-dimensional data. To dismantle the black-box barrier, a staged modeling strategy was proposed. InF-PaT first achieved high-accuracy soft sensing of four key pollutants (R2 > 0.91), translating complex raw data into physically meaningful indicators. These predictions then served as interpretable intermediate variables for a multilayer perceptron to perform precise source tracking (accuracy > 0.96). The framework's transparency was further fortified by Shapley Additive Explanations, thereby providing dual-level interpretability. This approach globally identified key monitoring indicators (e.g., pH) for soft sensing and source identification and quantified multi-source data contributions (27.98%-38.68%), while establishing transparent, evidence-based attribution explanations for each individual prediction. InF-PaT thus bridges the critical gap between high-performance prediction and regulatory trust, offering a robust pathway toward the intelligent and accountable governance of urban sewer networks.

Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) are promising and advanced technologies for wastewater treatment as well as energy and resource recovery. Anodes are important parts in BESs, and the spatial structure and surface characteristics of anodes greatly influence system performance. In this study, an iron-nitrogen loaded directionally-channeled carbonaceous framework (Fe-NDCF) anode was proposed and fabricated via the ice template method. Tailored microstructure and modified interface were conducive to enhancing the microbe colonization and interfacial electron transfer in BESs. Electrochemical activity of the anodes was elevated with the enrichment of the conductive carbon skeleton, with a significant decrease in the charge transfer resistance. The optimal anode-based BES displayed efficient wastewater energy harvesting, with a maximum power density of 3018 +/- 133 mW m(-2) and an organic removal rate constant of 0.23 +/- 0.01 h(-1), which were 91% and 64% higher than those of the carbon felt anode BES. Flow-through operation elevated the power generation and organic removal performance by 11% and 17%, respectively. Microorganisms attached to the internal microchannels, and the biofilm on the anode prepared from the polymer solution of a higher concentration displayed higher viability, reaching similar to 88% in the optimal bioanode. Electroactive microorganism Geobacter was found to be closely related to important microbial functions associated with protein synthesis and energy conversion. This work highlights the importance of the design of spatial microstructure and interfacial characteristics of anodes in BESs, and provides a new strategy for constructing anodes with directional microchannels and efficient electroactive sites to improve wastewater energy harvesting performance.

The effective treatment of oily wastewater, particularly stable oil/water emulsions, remains a significant challenge due to the lack of advanced separation materials that concurrently offer high permeability, superior selectivity, and robust antifouling stability. To address these challenges, this study develops a super-aligned carbon nanotube (SACNT) membrane with tailored superhydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity via a rational two-step surface engineering strategy, involving polydopamine priming and subsequent grafting of aminated SiO2 nanoparticles. The morphology, chemical composition, and wetting behavior of the membranes were systematically characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and contact angle measurements, while its separation performance was evaluated in terms of molecular weight cut-off (MWCO), water permeability, oil rejection rate, and long-term antifouling stability. The sequential deposition of polydopamine and aminated SiO2 nanoparticles enabled the construction of a highly ordered, cross-stacked CNT framework with uniform nanopores, achieving a water contact angle of ∼0° within 1 s and an underwater oil contact angle of ∼155°. The resulting membrane demonstrated exceptional separation efficiency (>99.2% oil rejection) and outstanding antifouling stability, maintaining >70% flux recovery over ten filtration cycles, which was attributed to its well-defined nanopores (MWCO ∼530 kDa), high water permeability (7.22 × 10−6 m s−1 kPa−1), and stable hydration layer. This work provides a generalizable platform for designing high-performance, durable separation membranes through bottom-up nanoscale engineering, opening a viable path toward the development of advanced CNT-based materials for sustainable water purification.