Removal of Antibiotics From Water with an All-Carbon 3D Nanofiltration Membrane

Recent industrial developments and increased energy demand have resulted in significantly increased levels of environmental pollutants, which have become a serious global problem. Herein, we propose a novel all-carbon nanofiltration (NF) membrane that consists of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) interposed between graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets to form a three-dimensional (3D) structure. The as-prepared membrane has abundant two-dimensional (2D) nanochannels that can physically sieve antibiotic molecules through electrostatic interaction. As a result, the prepared membrane, with a thickness of 4.26 μm, shows both a high adsorption of 99.23% for tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) and a high water permeation of 16.12 L m(− 2) h(− 1) bar(− 1). In addition, the cationic dye methylene blue (MB) was also removed to an extent of 83.88%, indicating broad applications of the prepared membrane. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s11671-018-2555-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.