{
  "abstract": "Urea is a pervasive nitrogenous pollutant that must be effectively eliminated from wastewater to prevent ecological damage, but existing treatment technologies remain inadequate. Here we show an integrated urea oxidation reaction-membrane distillation system that simultaneously achieves near-complete urea removal and resource recovery. The system employs a medium-entropy metal-organic framework (ME-MOF) electrocatalyst, which requires only 1.36 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) to achieve 100 mA cm-2 for urea electrooxidation. And, it operates stably for 1,000 h at a total current of 1 A, enabling the removal of 99.7% urea from concentrated streams to meet the stringent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission standard for fertilizer wastewater (<35 mg L-1 NH3-N). Operando characterizations reveal that entropy-stabilized multimetal sites enhance charge transfer and suppress Ni leaching. Furthermore, comprehensive life-cycle and techno-economic analyses demonstrate the system’s competitive environmental impact compared with conventional anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) processes, achieving economic viability with a net profit of $2.9 per m3 of effluent treated, in contrast to a loss of $0.63 per m3 for anammox treatment. Efficient removal of nitrogen-rich wastewater while recovering valuable chemicals remains a major challenge for sustainable water treatment. Here, the authors develop an integrated electrochemical membrane system that achieves near-complete urea removal and effective recovery of potassium hydroxide.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Contaminants Control Technologies and Intelligent Equipment in Water, School of Environment, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, PR China",
    "CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, PR China",
    "Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Contaminants Control Technologies and Intelligent Equipment in Water, School of Environment, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, PR China. yaohongts@163.com",
    "CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, PR China. zhaosl@nanoctr.cn"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 12,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Songlin Zhang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Hong Yao",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3652-0951"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Lei Shi",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7591-3248"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Xingju Zhang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Xin Bao",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2064-5266"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Xinshuo Shi"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Yingjie Guo",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2005-5012"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Tingting Zhao",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4466-7785"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Shengbao Zhou"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Kai Hui"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Xinyang Li"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Shenlong Zhao",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4073-1102"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0rppjzr5rzf2q.bib",
  "cited_by": 5,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41467-026-72462-0",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "0rppjzr5rzf2q",
  "issns": [
    "2041-1723"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72462-0",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2312|Membrane Separation Technologies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7161126142",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": "PMC13376577",
  "pmid": "42135290",
  "published": "2026-05-14",
  "publisher": "Nature Portfolio",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0rppjzr5rzf2q.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T13:21:18Z",
      "native_id": "W7161126142",
      "source": "openalex",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72462-0"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "openalex:2312|Membrane Separation Technologies",
      "subfield": "hydrology-soils"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Medium-entropy metal-organic framework-integrated catalytic distillation system for near 100% urea removal",
  "title_text": "Medium-entropy metal-organic framework-integrated catalytic distillation system for near 100% urea removal",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-09T13:21:21Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0rppjzr5rzf2q",
  "venue": "Nature Communications",
  "versions": []
}