Antibiotic residues in drinking water have become a global problem, especially in developing countries. However, effective purification of water contaminated by antibiotics remains a great challenge. Here, we investigated the removing of tetracycline by carbon nanomaterials with different structures and surface functionalities. The result shows that a membrane of thick graphene oxide (GO) and activated carbon (AC) with a thickness of 15 μm can effectively remove 98.9% of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) from water by vacuum filtration. Structural analysis indicated that the AC nanoparticles were uniformly inserted into the GO interstitial sites without any aggregations. Also, GO sheets were loosened by the encapsulated AC nanoparticles, leading to the formation of numerous tiny pores (3–10 nm) that acted as channels for fluid passage, whereas the carbons and chemical groups on the GO surface adsorbed TCH. GO/AC membrane exhibits the best adsorption efficiency among the investigated materials, including pure GO, AC, carbon nanotube (CNT), and CNT/AC and GO/CNT hybrids.

Organic pollutants are harmful to human health, which creates a global need for the development of novel and effective materials for efficiently removing contaminants. Accordingly, an efficient visible light-driven heterostructured membrane combined with oxygen-modified monolayer g-C 3 N 4 , graphene oxide, and nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (O-g-C 3 N 4 /GO/N-CNT) was successfully fabricated through electrostatic interactions and subsequent vacuum filtration. The results suggested that the O-g-C 3 N 4 /GO/N-CNT membrane exhibited higher degradation rate than those of O-g-C 3 N 4 /GO and pure O-g-C 3 N 4 under visible light exposure. This enhanced photocatalytic performance was attributed to the introduction of GO and N-CNT, which acted as electronic acceptors for monolayer O-g-C 3 N 4 that effectively inhibited recombination of photogenerated electron−hole pairs, thus enhancing visible light photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, the enrichment and degradation rates of O-g-C 3 N 4 /GO/N-CNT membranes were demonstrated for tetracycline hydrochloride, which were found to be 96.64 and 94.30%, respectively, and no distinct enrichment or catalytic activity reduction was observed when their reusability was measured. These results suggested that these recyclable O-g-C 3 N 4 / GO/N-CNT membranes provide a new strategy for the highly efficient removal of environmental pollutants.

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A nanocomposite membrane composed of samarium metal-organic frameworks and graphene oxide nanosheets was fabricated for organic dye removal.