Adsorption of Uremic Toxins Using Ti₃C₂T MXene for Dialysate Regeneration

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a major worldwide crisis. Although respiratory symptoms are a key feature of the disease, many people who are hospitalized with COVID-19 also suffer acute kidney injury, a condition that exacerbates patient mortality and may have to be treated through renal replacement therapy. Much of the focus on hospital capacity during the pandemic has centered on the availability of ventilators. However, supplies for dialysis treatment, including dialysate, have also run dangerously low in hospitals at the epicenter of the pandemic. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop materials that can efficiently and rapidly regenerate dialysate, removing toxins and restoring electrolyte concentrations so that this vital resource remains readily available. In this work, Ti₃C₂T, a two-dimensional transition-metal carbide (MXene) that is known to efficiently adsorb urea, was used to remove creatinine and uric acid from an aqueous solution and dialysate, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 45.7 and 17.0 mg/g, respectively. We systematically analyzed and modeled the adsorption kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamics, thus determining the rate-limiting step and adsorption mechanism. A fixed-bed column loaded with Ti₃C₂T was designed to further evaluate the adsorption performance under continuous fluid-flow conditions, mirroring conditions of continuous renal replacement therapy modalities. The maximum capacity and 50% breakthrough volume were calculated to further approach the practical application of Ti₃C₂T for removal of uremic toxins. Our findings suggest that Ti₃C₂T has the potential to be used as an efficient sorbent for the regeneration of dialysate, allowing for accelerated dialysate regeneration by removing filtered toxins and leading to more portable dialysis devices.