Abstract
The global shift in per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) crisis towards (ultra-)short-chain congeners highlights the urgent need to design adsorbents with hydrophilic functions. However, current functional group immobilization modifications fail to balance efficiency with regeneration, limiting access to affordable (ultra-)short-chain PFAS-free potable water. Herein, we present a non-immobilized dynamic hydroxyl cycling strategy that uses only water to circularly drive commercial zeolite adsorption-regeneration processes, efficiently and sustainably removing various (ultra-)short-chain PFASs (C-F number: 1-6) from potable water. The enhanced nanopore accessibility and the formation of a “zeolite framework-confined water” dual-binding mode make the modified zeolite one of the highest capacity adsorbents reported (233.82-733.13 mg g-1). Notably, this methodology offers a potential low-cost, in-situ upgrade for existing purifiers, potentially providing healthy water to underdeveloped regions through 179 days of full-scale purification.
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All data are available in the main text or the supporting information. Should any raw data files be needed in another format, they are available from the corresponding authors upon request. Source data have been deposited in the Figshare database (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31123411)48.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Basic Science Center Project of the Natural Science Foundation of China (52388101, H.Q.R.) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52422001, H.D.H). We thank B. Dai at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Instrumental Analysis Center about 2D-NMR measurement and Z. Chen at Nanjing University for suggestion on density functional theory analysis. We are also grateful to the High-Performance Computing Center of Nanjing University for providing computing resources for this work.
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Y.J.S., H.D.H., and H.Q.R. conceived the study. Y.J.S. and H.D.H. designed experiments. H.Q.R. conducted and supervised all experiments and data collection. Y.J.S. prepared materials, performed cyclic adsorption experiments, molecular dynamics simulation, and density functional theory analysis. M.H.Y. and H.X.M. assisted with material characterization, cyclic adsorption experiments, and (ultra-)short-chain PFAS measurement. Y.J.S. and H.D.H. reviewed and interpreted the results. Y.J.S. and H.D.H. wrote the original draft. All authors reviewed and commented on the paper.
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Shi, Y., Yang, M., Mu, H. et al. Dynamic hydroxyl cycle of zeolite for short and ultra-short chain PFAS free potable water. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70507-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70507-y
