Removal of Antibiotics from Wastewaters by Carbon Nanotube Filtration Membrane: A Review

Abstract

Water pollution by antibiotics is a global challenge requiring an affordable, readily available, efficient solution. Therefore, this review evaluates the role of carbon nanotube (CNT) based filtration membrane as an efficient solution to provide clean water free of antibiotic residues. The study considered the preparation of CNTs and CNT filtration membranes and their performance towards removing antibiotics from water. The study revealed that there are several methods for the preparation of CNTs, among which the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) is commonly used. It further revealed that three types of CNT-based membranes exist, which are vertically aligned (VA-CNT), bucky paper CNTs (BP-CNT) and CNT-based composite (CNT-CPS). Despite the high performance demonstrated by the membranes, there is a need to evaluate the cost-effectiveness, safety, and regeneration of the membranes. More studies are also required on a large scale to understand the behaviour of the membranes in the purification of ample water supply and the effect of interference from other co-pollutants in water in the real-life polluted water matrix. The study showed that CNT-based filtration membranes are promising membranes for the future, with reliable properties for effectively purifying contaminated water.