Oxidative stable functionalized Ti₃C₂T_x MXene infused novel hybrid membranes for antibiotics laden hospital wastewater treatment

Antibiotics in hospital wastewater have emerged as prominent contaminants because of their adverse effect on ecosystems and human health. The treatment of antibiotics-laden hospital wastewater is one of the utmost importance. This study describes the fabrication of oxidative stable functionalized MXene (Ti₃C₂T_x-polydopamine-g-polyethylenimine) (Ti₃C₂T_x-PDA-g-PEI) infused novel hybrid membranes via the non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method for antibiotics-laden hospital wastewater (HWW) treatment. The functionalized Ti₃C₂T_x MXene (f-MXene) was synthesized from Ti₃C₂T_x MXene and dopamine through mussel-inspired polymerization and Michael addition/Schiff base reaction. Hybrid membranes were then manufactured using different fractions of f-MXene, polyether sulfone (PES) and sulfonated poly (ether sulfone) (SPES). The hydrophilicity, surface texture, pore size distributions, and surface charge were tunable with the fraction of f-MXene within the matrix of hybrid membranes. The pure water flux (J_w) of the hybrid membranes depended on the fraction of f-MXene and the J_w of 1 wt% f-MXene incorporated membrane MX1 was 2.5-fold higher than the pristine membrane MX0. The hybrid membranes were utilized in antibiotic (Tetracycline: TCL and Sulfamethoxazole: SMX) removal from synthetic solutions and HWW. Only 1 wt% f-MXene was adequate to manufacture high performance hybrid membrane MX1 to remove 97.2 % TCL and 42 % SMX. Almost 75 % of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and phosphate ion (PO₄³⁻) were rejected by the membrane MX1. The enhanced performance of the hybrid membranes for the rejection of TCL and SMX was primarily governed by a combination of electrostatic repulsion, molecular adsorption, and transport pathway modification. Overall, f-MXene infused hybrid membranes were competent in treating antibiotics-contaminated HWW.