Timely separation of products from the reactant is a great challenge for a catalytic reaction process. In this study, we fabricated a novel poly(vinylidene fluoride) composite membrane with noble metal (Au, Ag, and Pd) nanoparticles in membrane pores to solve the faced challenge. The composite membrane has a unique structure comprising membrane surfaces with only PVDF and membrane pores with poly(methacrylic acid) microspheres coated by noble metal nanoparticles. The composite membrane is used for the catalytic reduction of p-nitrophenol and the results indicate that the catalytic reaction can rapidly proceed. What is more, the product formed in reaction process can be immediately isolated from the reactant. Other drawbacks such as the easy aggregation and the difficult separation generally encountered by the metal nanocatalysts are also avoided by using the composite membrane. In operation process, the composite membrane shows good thermal, mechanical and catalytic stability. These attracted merits make the prepared composite membrane have desirable prospects in catalytic application. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 58:150-159, 2018. (c) 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers