Abstract
Antibiotic residues in drinking water have become a global problem, especially in developing countries. However, effective purification of antibiotics contaminated water remains a great challenge. We investigated the use of carbon nanomaterials with different structures and surface functionalities and found that a 15 m thick graphene oxide (GO) and activated carbon (AC) membrane effectively removed 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, diminishing AC nanoparticle aggregation. The tightly aggregated GO nanoflakes 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. We also investigated the adsorption efficiencies of pure GO, AC, carbon nanotube (CNT), and CNT/AC and GO/CNT hybrids, but GO/AC demonstrated the best results.