Sol-gel-derived mesoporous layers consisting in a packing Of SiO2/ZnO core-shell nanoparticles were prepared. Porous texture characterization and permeation experiments on the resulting membrane show its adequacy for ultrafiltration applications. This membrane exhibits both photocatalytic and H2S chemisorption properties related to the presence of the active ZnO phase at the surface of the membrane pores. These additional properties were quantified. Such multifunctional membrane could potentially be used for purification operations coupling separation and photocatalysis or gas filtration and H2S chemisorption at high temperature. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.