Ultrathin, Flexible, and Multifunctional Silk Fibroin-Ag Functional Engineered Membranes for Integrated Separation, Treatment, and Detection of Water Pollutants

Multifunctional membranes integrating pollutant separation, treatment, and detection are highly desirable but challenging to create. Here, we report a coordination–adsorption–reduction strategy to fabricate ultrathin, flexible, self-supporting silk fibroin-Ag (SAFE) membranes at the air–water interface. Mechanistic studies reveal that silver(Ι) center coordination guides silk fibroin aggregation, which templates uniform AgNP growth. The resulting membranes achieve exceptional electrical conductivity (up to 1.9 × 10 7 S m –1 ) and mechanical robustness. Functionally, they provide high-flux separation and superior pollutant adsorption, while the embedded AgNPs offer multifaceted treatment via antimicrobial, catalytic, and electrochemical activities and enable sensitive SERS detection of trace contaminants. This integrated “separation–treatment–detection” approach establishes SAFE membranes as a promising platform for intelligent and sustainable water purification