Angew: MXene membrane helps sewage treatment

The release of antibiotics and uncontrolled drugs has brought increasing environmental pollution problems worldwide. According to reports, the content of antibiotics has been lower than ppm or even ppb levels, which will cause devastating disasters to the ecosystem, and may produce terrible super bacteria resistant to the original antibiotics. Some special antibiotics are even highly toxic to aquatic organisms. Therefore, efficient wastewater treatment technology needs to be developed urgently.

Achievements

     Recently, South China University of Wang Haihui Jiaoshou andResearcher Wei Yanying and Professor Jürgen Caro of the University of Hanover in Germany published a paper entitled"Antibiotics Separation with MXene Membranes Based on Regularly Stacked High-Aspect-Ratio Nanosheets " in thetop international journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition . In this work,seven typical antibiotics (aqueous, alcohol-soluble antibiotics) were successfully extracted from the corresponding aqueous solutions andusing a highly regular laminated film (assembled from2-4 micron Ti3C2Txnanosheets). Separated from the ethanol solution. Thesolvent permeability of theprepared Ti3C2Txmembrane is one order of magnitude higher than that of most other polymer nanofiltration membranes, and similar antibiotics are not allowed to pass. This high throughput is due tothe regular two-dimensional (2D) structurecomposed of higher content of Ti3C2Txnanoplatelets. In addition, the electrostatic interaction between functional groups and antibiotics also affects the rejection reaction and improves the antifouling ability. This two-dimensional Ti3C2T x membrane further expands the application range of layered materials in the separation and purification of high value-added drugs.

Figure  1  Characterization of Ti 3 C 2 T x nanosheets.

Figure  2  Characterization of Ti 3 C 2 T x film.

Figure  3  Antibiotic separation performance of Ti 3 C 2 T x membrane.

Figure  4  Molecular separation mechanism of Ti 3 C 2 T x film.

in conclusion

In summary, the two-dimensional layered membrane assembled from Ti 3 C 2 T x nanosheets has excellent antibacterial drug separation performance, not only in aqueous solutions, but also in ethanol solutions. The mechanism of separation is mainly selective screening of molecular size. At an appropriate pH , electrostatic repulsion forces the film to reject antibiotics. In the separation process, regular interlayer space and surface hydrophilic groups dominate the separation performance and antifouling performance. The solvent permeability of the prepared Ti 3 C 2 T x membrane is one order of magnitude higher than that of most other polymer nanofiltration membranes. This Ti3C2Tx membrane expands the application of layered membranes in drug purification, sewage treatment and medical sewage treatment.

Original link:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.202002935

Source: MXene Academic