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.