Metal–phenolic coating on membrane for ultrafast antibiotics adsorptive removal from water

Eliminating antibiotics from wastewater remains a critical challenge. This work introduces durable, high-performance adsorptive membranes formed by polymerizing tannic acid (TA) and Fe³⁺ ions on commercial substrates, known as TA-Fe, to enhance antibiotic removal. Using a filtration process, the TA-Fe modified membrane (MCM) demonstrated excellent ciprofloxacin hydrochloride removal efficiency, permeance, and reusability. The MCM achieved high removal capability for antibiotics, with a permeance of 3815 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹ and 96.7% removal efficiency within 1.3 min—115 times faster than traditional methods. Furthermore, the MCM sustained an impressive adsorptive capacity of 99.4% even after 10 consecutive cycles. This work profoundly progresses the domain of adsorptive membrane technology, offering a promising avenue for the sustainable adsorption and separation of antibiotics from contaminated wastewater.