Abstract
Residual antibiotics in water have become a primary source of water pollution due to their misuse. Recently, membranes, produced by layered nanomaterials such as graphene oxide (GO), boron nitride (BN) and transition metal dichalcogenides, have been used in water purification, desalination and molecule separation as they are energy saving and simple to operate. The performance of membranes is closely related to their structure and the properties of the nanomaterials used. In this work, BN nanosheets (BNNSs) and GO were used to fabricate a two-dimensional nanocomposite membrane in order to improve the membrane’s permeance. It should be mentioned that the corresponding equal mass of the pure GO membrane was almost impermeable for the antibiotic solution. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were inserted into the GO layers to increase the interlayer spacing and adsorb more antibiotics from the water. The resultant MWCNTs/BNNSs/GO membranes showed improved permeance and stable sieving capability for the antibiotic and small species. Specifically, permeance reached 30.2 L m−2 h−1 bar−1, which was much higher than pure GO membrane and the antibiotic rejection was 96.1%.
Highlights
Antibiotics, which are widely utilized in medicine, poultry farming and food processing [1,2], have attracted considerable attention due to their abuse and their harmful effects on human health and the ecological environment [3,4]
Six mL of polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDDA)-Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) dispersion was added into 2 mL of graphene oxide (GO) dispersion and stirring for 10 min, 4 mL of BN nanosheets (BNNSs) dispersion was dropped into mixed solution under stirring
The diameter of the BNNSs ranged from 100 to 500 nm which was consistent with the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) results (Figure 1b,c)
Summary
Antibiotics, which are widely utilized in medicine, poultry farming and food processing [1,2], have attracted considerable attention due to their abuse and their harmful effects on human health and the ecological environment [3,4]. Membrane technology, which is characterized by being energy-saving, highly efficient and easy to operate, has been widely used in the last few decades. It has been applied in water desalination and purification, waste water treatment, gas separation, dialysis and so on. A 2D heterostructure GO/g-C3N4@TiO2 membranes for water-oil separation with a permeance of 4536 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 has been fabricated [25]. The fabrication of an efficient membrane to eliminate antibiotics from water is essential. The prepared MWCNTs/BNNSs/GO nanocomposite membrane was characterized and used to eliminate the antibiotic tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) in water. The results show that the prepared membrane efficiently removed TCH in water with a quite high permeance of 30.2 L m−2 h−1 bar−1
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
