Synergistic Coordination and Interface of Carbon Nanomaterials with Metal–Organic Frameworks for Pharmaceutical Wastewater Remediation: Path to Scalable, Circular, and Industrially Viable Solutions

Global pharmaceutical consumption, projected to exceed $1.5 trillion by 2030, threatens aquatic ecosystems and public health. This review demonstrates that integrating metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) into MOF@CNM heterostructures delivers a breakthrough in water remediation via synergistic metal–oxygen–carbon (M–O–C) electronic coupling. A meta-analysis of >50 studies indicates that metal node structure (42%), carbon dimensionality (22%), and pharmaceutical class (14%) dictate 78% of performance variance. d⁰ metal nodes favor polar antibiotic binding, whereas d⁹ nodes drive π-complexation with hydrophobic drugs. However, these interactions also depend on node accessibility, linker chemistry, drug speciation, and solution pH. Furthermore, CNMs extend charge carrier lifetimes from 2–4 ns to 8–15 ns via π–π orbital hybridization, enhancing adsorption 3.4-fold and photocatalysis 4.7-fold. However, matrix interference drops removal efficiency from 98% in pure water to 48% in raw wastewater. Meta-regression identifies carbon functionalization as the strongest synergy driver (coefficient = +1.95, p < 0.001), favouring in situ growth over postsynthetic assembly at an optimal 15–25 wt% carbon loading. To bridge the laboratory-to-scale gap and combat the 10 million annual deaths from antimicrobial resistance projected by 2050, future design must prioritize pharmaceutical properties (polarity, lipophilicity, pKa), anti‑fouling heterostructures, continuous‑flow reactors, and >90% material circularity.