Superhydrophobic nanosized metal-organic framework composites for the targeted removal of hydrophobic pharmaceuticals with outstanding bacterial anti-adhesion properties

The increasing concentration of pharmaceutical waste after the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the urgency of removing various drugs from environmental water specimens. Realizing this concern, herein, a nanosized superhydrophobic metal-organic framework (SH-MOF) material was synthesized and its activated form (SH-MOF ') was used for the selective removal of two widely used drugs, i.e., favipiravir (a potential COVID-19 drug) and diflunisal. The reusable MOF has very high adsorption capacities towards favipiravir and difunisal i.e., 86.5 and 148 mg g-1, respectively, within 5 min. The MOF also adsorbs drug molecules in highly acidic and alkaline media with almost equal efficiency. The porous nano-sized MOF shows high selectivity towards the adsorption of favipiravir and difunisal over the common ions and hydrophilic drugs. To make the adsorption process more user-friendly, a MOF-coated sponge composite was developed and utilized for filtration-based drug separation. Moreover, the superhydrophobic MOF and silver nanoparticle-coated cotton composite was fabricated which displayed excellent bacterial anti-adhesion and anti-bacterial properties towards Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Superhydrophobic MOF coated reusable, inexpensive, handy sponge composites were utilized for selective, fast, and efficient capture of lethal hydrophobic drugs from environmental wastewater. The composites exhibited remarkable bacterial anti-adhesion.