Abstract
Water scarcity and quality challenges facing the world can be alleviated by Point-of-Use filtration devices (POU). The use of filtration membranes in POU devices has been limited largely because of membrane fouling, which occurs when suspended solids, microbes, and organic materials are deposited on the surface of filtration membranes significantly decreasing the membrane lifespan, thereby increasing operation costs. There is need therefore to develop filtration membranes that are devoid of these challenges. In this work, nanotechnology was used to fabricate nanostructured polyamic acid (nPAA) membranes, which can be used for microbial decontamination of water. The PAA was used as support and reducing agent to introduce silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with antimicrobial properties. The nPAA membranes were fabricated via thermal and wet phase inversion technique and then tested against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus following standard tests. The resulting nanoparticles exhibited excellent dispersibility and stability as indicated by the color change of the solution and increments of optical density at 415 nm for AgNPs and 520 nm for AuNPs. The wet phase inversion process used produced highly porous, strong, and flexible nPAA membranes, which showed well-dispersed spherical AuNPs and AgNPs whose rough average size was found to be 35 nm and 25 nm, respectively. The AgNPs demonstrated inhibition for both gram positive E. coli and gram negative S. aureus, with a better inhibitory activity against S. aureus. A synergistic enhancement of AgNPs antimicrobial activity upon AuNPs addition was demonstrated. The nPAA membranes can thus be used to remove microbials from water and can hence be used in water purification.
Highlights
Water, as a source of life, is the most important material for human survival and development [1]
World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 1 in 8 persons lacks access to safe drinking water and estimates that 3.5 million people, of which 84% are children and 98% occur in the developing countries, die every year from waterborne diseases emanating from drinking unsafe water [2, 5, 6]. e need to provide safe drinking water especially to poor people in developing countries cannot be overemphasized [7]. e Increasing global need for water and wastewater treatment has driven the widespread development of large-scale membrane filtration processes [8]
Reported in this paper is a two-step method for the simultaneous incorporation of well-dispersed gold and silver nanoparticles using Polyamic acid (PAA) as both the reductant and sequestrating framework. ough with a degree of polydispersity, nanoparticles formed from silver nitrate had a narrow size distribution of ∼30 nm for agent to introduce silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)
Summary
As a source of life, is the most important material for human survival and development [1]. Is is due to rapid development of industries and increasing human activities, such as metal plating, fertilizers, tanneries, mining, paper, batteries, pesticides, and many harmful inorganic and organic pollutants that are released into water [3, 4], which seriously endangers the freshwater resource and ecological environment, which undermines the water quality making it unsafe [1]. World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 1 in 8 persons lacks access to safe drinking water and estimates that 3.5 million people, of which 84% are children and 98% occur in the developing countries, die every year from waterborne diseases emanating from drinking unsafe water [2, 5, 6]. E Increasing global need for water and wastewater treatment has driven the widespread development of large-scale membrane filtration processes [8]. Increasing water demands have forced research into membranes with a superior water flux. In RO, ions, unwanted molecules, and larger particles are removed from water by passing them through a semipermeable membrane, while in FO there is a spontaneous diffusion of water across the semipermeable membrane in response to a difference in solute concentration. ese membranes require increasingly high pressure operations to boost water flux and are expensive to maintain and operate [11, 12]
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