Chinese scientists have developed a kind of nanomaterial that can effectively remove antibiotics in water. Antibiotics have been widely used in veterinary medicine and as medication for humans, but has also been seen as an emerging pollutant in water, since its residue can lead to antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
Given this, a study team led by Prof. Kong Lingtao from the Institute of Intelligent Machines under Hefei Institutes of Physical Science has synthesised the new Zr-MOFs (UiO-66-NH2) nanomaterial successfully to remove antibiotics from water.
This nanomaterial was fabricated via hydrothermal synthesis, and can work as an absorbent to remove norfloxacin, a type of antibiotic in water, without secondary pollution. The Zr-MOFs has a high adsorption capacity, with the adsorption capacities of UiO-66-NH2 reached a maximum of 222.5 mg/g for NOR, which were considerably higher than that of most reported adsorbents.
At a concentration of 10 mg/L, the highest partition coefficient of 20.9 mg/g/μM was obtained, and the removal rate of NOR was as high as 91.6%, implying that UiO-66-NH2 offered considerable adsorption performance at a low concentration of NOR.
This research has provided new perspective for the removal of antibiotics in water by nanomaterials and has broad application prospects.
This work was supported by the State Key Research Development Program of China, the Natural Science Foundation of China and the Science and Technology Major Projects of Anhui Province.
