Engineering of a Commercial Polyamide Microfiltration Membrane via Robustly Immobilizing Gallic Acid-Modified Silver Nanoparticles for the Removal of Antibiotics and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Owing to the overuse of antibiotics, antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) are frequently detected in aquatic environments, which has aroused widespread concern regarding its impact on the balance of ecosystems and human health. Removing antibiotics and ARB in contaminated water via a trustworthy, sustainable, and low-cost approach is quite difficult. Furthermore, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been proven to be a promising catalyst for generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) via activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for the efficient removal of antibiotics. Unfortunately, frequent biofouling on the membrane surface will negatively impact the water purification performances of the filtration processes by decreasing water flux. Herein, gallic acid-modified silver nanoparticles (GA@AgNPs) were selected to facilely and robustly decorate a conventional polyamide microfiltration (PMF) membrane by various interactions between amino and catechol groups without reducing its water permeability. Moreover, the as-prepared GA@AgNPs-PMF membrane exhibited strong antibacterial activity, which could effectively migrate biofouling on the membrane surface. In addition, the GA@AgNPs-PMF membrane could effectively generate ROS via activating PMS, facilitating the removal of antibiotics, and achieving ∼80% removal efficiency within 3 h. Therefore, the GA@AgNPs-PMF membrane developed in this work is a promising low-energy membrane system for the practical removal of antibiotics and ARB.