Development of conductive two-dimensional metal-organic frameworks self-cleaning membrane for enhanced antibiotics rejection and sustainable fouling mitigation

• Published in: Journal of membrane science 2024-09, Vol.709, p.123108, Article 123108
• Main Authors: Hu, Zebin, Yin, Zhonglong, Chen, Yufan, Wen, Tiancheng, Li, Feilong, Yang, Weiben
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antibiotics; Fouling mitigation; Metal-organic frameworks; Nanofiltration membrane; Two-dimensional material
• ISSN: 0376-7388; 1873-3123
• DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2024.123108

In this study, a novel electroactive NF membrane was constructed for ultrafast rejection of antibiotics with high selectivity and self-cleaning by incorporating a conductive two dimensional metal-organic frameworks (Cu-HHTP) into porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) matrix with facile and scalable non-solvent induced phase inversion strategy. Cu-HHTP membrane showed two orders of magnitude higher permeability (198.4 L m−2 h−1·bar−1) than the commercial and most reported NF membranes without sacrificing rejection toward negatively charged tetracycline (95.4 %), positively charged vancomycin (99.9 %) and neutrally charged valinomycin (99.9 %). Interestingly, loading Cu-HHTP with hydrophilic and porous nature can break the permeability-rejection trade-off effect and the mechanism was due to the improved water channel and pollutants sieving. Furthermore, it has stable antibiotics rejection and high flux recovery rate of 93.9 % for long-term filtration of wastewater over 264 h with low energy consumption of 0.1007 W h/L and without adding chemical cleaning agents, which demonstrated its excellent fouling control and stability. This study may guide the development of advanced self-cleaning NF membranes tailored for removal of small molecular emerging contaminants. [Display omitted] •Novel NF membrane was designed for ultrafast and effective removal of antibiotics.•Membrane has high permeability of 198.37 LMH·bar−1 without sacrificing rejection.•The role of membrane structure and Cu-HHTP in membrane performance was revealed.•Loading Cu-HHTP in membrane breaks the permeability and rejection trade-off effect.•Membrane has excellent fouling control and stability for long-term water reuse.