Fig. 7: Relationship between hormone adsorbed mass and adhesive force FA.

Specific steroid hormone adsorbed mass of VaCNT membrane \({q}_{{{{{{\rm{ads}}}}}},{{{{{\rm{A}}}}}}}\) vs. adhesive van der Waals adhesive force \({F}_{{{{{{\rm{A}}}}}}}\). Carbon nanotube pore diameter 1.7 nm, permeate volume 100 mL, flux 27 ± 3 L m−2 h−1, 100 ng L−1 steroid hormone, 1 mM NaHCO3, 10 mM NaCl, pH 8.1 ± 0.2, 23.0 ± 0.2 °C. Error bars represent propagated error from operational parameter variations and analytical error.