A general method for the fabrication of flexible, multifunctional and hierarchically-nanostructured membranes was reported. As an example, the as-prepared TiO2 nanorod self-supporting membrane shows excellent advantages, when it is used in concurrent filtration and degradation of the pollutants in waters, including high mechanical flexibility, high permeate flux, high photocatalytic activity and no membrane fouling problem, which indicate its great potential for sustainable environmental applications. And this general method also was successfully demonstrated with a ZnO nanoflake self-supporting membrane, which also have great potential in environmental and energy applications. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.