▎ 摘　　要

The past several decades have witnessed tremendous research to discover ways for controlling heavy metal pollution, but most of the strategies do not involve reuse of the captured heavy metals. Herein, we propose a graphene oxide -based strategy for the effective removal of Cu2+ ions from water, coupled with their reuse as an antibacterial agent. Using GO nanosheets as an adsorbent and nanosupport, the Cu2+ ions were effectively extracted from water (>99.9%) and reduced in situ to copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) containing both crystalline Cu and Cu2O. The as-captured Cu NPs showed efficient in vitro antibacterial ability against Escherichia coli, reducing the bacteria from 109 to 101 CFU mL?1 by using 1 mg mL?1 Cu NPs/GO NSs for 1 h. The minimum inhibitory concentration determined to be only 16 ?g mL?1. For practical applications, Cu recovered from wastewater could reduce bacteria by 8 log CFU in 1 h. The recovered Cu was still able to reduce the bacteria by 7 log CFU after 2 months of storage in an argon atmosphere. This strategy of extracting heavy metals and subsequently reutilizing to kill bacteria will be of great significance for environmental remediation and public healthcare.