Bioinspired architected catalyst for efficient water purification: Bridging reactivity, reusability, and catalytic component utilization.

Abstract

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 (<i>K</i> 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.