Figure3 . Characterization of HP-HKUST-1/PES membrane (A: XRD; B: FTIR; C: high-resolution XPS spectrum of N 1s; D: high-resolution XPS spectrum of Cu 2p3/2).
The morphology and distribution of HP-HKUST-1 in PES membrane have been determined by SEM, as shown in Figure 4 . It can be seen that the nanoparticles are effectively immobilized in the pore of the PES membrane with the membrane fiber wrapped by the nanoparticles. Besides, the size of the nanoparticles immobilized in membrane pores are uniform with it value in the range of 1000±200 nm. From Figure 4(B), it can be seen that some pores are shown in the nanoparticles and a hierarchical pore structure of HP-HKUTS-1 are successfully fabricated in PES membrane pores by flowing synthesis. More visual and definitive morphologies of the porous structure of HP-HKUST-1 were observed in TEM image (Figure S2A ). From the optical image of the HP-HKUST-1 as shown in Figure S2B , it can be seen that the color of the membrane adsorber is uniform, which implied that the nanoparticles are immobilized in each pore of the PES membrane. Besides, the EDS scan shows the elemental distribution of the whole cross section of HP- HKUST-1/PES membrane, and it can be seen that C, N, O, Cu are uniformly distributed along the thickness direction throughout the cross section with the uniform distribution of the HP- HKUST-1 along the direction of membrane thickness can be expected. Combining the results from the optical image and EDS, it can be deduced that the HP-HKUST-1 is immobilized uniformly both along the surface direction and thickness direction of PES porous membrane.