Sustainable and ultrafast antibiotics removal, self-cleaning and disinfection with electroactive metal-organic frameworks/carbon nanotubes membrane

• Published in: Journal of hazardous materials Vol. 475; p. 134944
• Main Authors: Yin, Zhonglong, Liu, Yulong, Hu, Zebin, Wang, Jiancheng, Li, Feilong, Yang, Weiben
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 15.08.2024
• Subjects: Antibiotics; Carbon nanotubes; Metal-organic frameworks; Nanofiltration; Self-cleaning; Carbon nanotubes; Nanofiltration; Self-cleaning; Antibiotics; Metal-organic frameworks
• ISSN: 0304-3894; 1873-3336; 1873-3336
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.134944

Although conventional nanofiltration (NF) membrane is widely applied in water treatment, it faces the challenges of insufficient selectivity toward emerging contaminants, low permeability and non-sustainable fouling control. Herein, a novel electroactive metal-organic frameworks/carbon nanotubes membrane was constructed by facile and green nanobubbles-mediated non-solvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) strategy for ultrafast antibiotics removal. It presented 3-fold to 100-fold higher permeability (101.3–105.7 L·h−1·m−2·bar−1) without compromising rejection (71.8 %−99.3 %) of common antibiotics (tetracycline, norfloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, sulfamethazine) than most commercial and state-of-the-art NF membranes. The separation mechanism was due to the synergy of loose selective layer with three-dimensional interconnected networks and UiO-66/CNTs with unique pore sieving and charge property. It also presented excellent antibiotics selectivity with high NaCl/tetracycline separation factor of 194 and CuCl2/tetracycline separation factor of 316 for remediation of antibiotics and heavy metal combined pollution. Meanwhile, it possessed efficient anti-fouling, antibacterial and electro-driven self-cleaning ability, which enabled sustainable fouling control and disinfection with short process, low energy and chemical consumption. Furthermore, potential application of UiO-66/CNTs membrane in wastewater reclamation was demonstrated by stable antibiotics rejection, efficient flux recovery and long-term stability over 260 h. This study would provide useful insights into removal of emerging contaminants from water by advanced NF membrane. [Display omitted] •Novel membrane was designed for ultrafast and selective separation of antibiotics.•The role of loose active layer and UiO-66/CNTs in membrane separation was revealed.•Membrane has high flux (101.3 L·h−1·m−2·bar−1) and tetracycline rejection (99.3 %).•Sustainable membrane fouling control and disinfection were achieved by electricity.•It has stable antibiotic rejection, high permeate quality and stability over 260 h.