MXene and Silver Intercalated Graphene Oxide Membrane with Antibacterial Performance for High-Permeability Micro/Nanoplastics Removal

Separation membranes intended for micro/nanoplastics (MPs) removal from drinking water are still-largely constrained-by-low permeability, poor antibacterial activity, and insufficient cycling stability. In-this work, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were reduced in situ on graphene oxide (GO) to-form AgrG composite which were then hybridized-with MXene to fabricate AgrG-M membrane for efficient-MPs removal-from water. The AgrG-M membrane features a-large interlayer spacing, resulting in-high permeability (353.95   L   m −2 h −1 bar −1 ) and a satisfactory MPs removal efficiency of over 99.9%. In addition, the incorporation of AgNPs endows the hybrid membrane with excellent broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, and the leaching concentration of silver ions in the effluent fully complies with the limits of drinking water standards, which guarantees the biosafety for practical application. Further stability evaluations confirm that the membrane maintains outstanding stability in solutions with a wide pH range of 3–11; long-term separation tests show that the MPs removal rate remains above 99.9% during 48   h of continuous operation, and the membrane permeability only declines by 10.4% after 20 consecutive filtration cycles. Under real-world conditions, the membrane also shows remarkable MPs removal performance in tap water and rainwater. In summary, the prepared AgrG-M hybrid membrane exhibits significant application potential and practical value for the advanced purification of drinking water containing MPs.