Enhanced Antibiotics Sieving by Exfoliated TiS2 Membranes via Surface Functionalization and Passivation

Abstract Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) nanolaminate membranes hold great promise for molecular sieving due to their two-dimensional capillary structures, which facilitate size-restricted diffusion. However, many transition metal sulfides exhibit intrinsic instability and are highly susceptible to oxidation, which severely limits their durability under reverse osmosis operating conditions. In this work, we introduce a stable 1T phase titanium disulfide (TiS 2 ) constructing nanolaminate membranes from Group IVB, enabling the formation of tunable capillary channels and achieving a permeance up to 46.8 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 . Experiments confirm that water-initiated hydrolysis, rather than direct oxidation by molecular O 2 , dominates the degradation of TiS 2 , while alkyl-chain hydrophobic barriers effectively suppress this water-triggered degradation. The enhanced surface hydrophobic properties simultaneously improve antioxidation stability and ensure sustained performance over 30 filtration cycles and 15 days of continuous operation. Functionalized membranes further reached 96.9% rejection for diverse antibiotics, such as sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, and rifampicin. This work opens new avenues for exploring emerging TMD materials in the efficient and reliable removal of trace antibiotics from water, contributing to safer water resources and promoting sustainable ecological practices.