Preparation and bacteriostatic research of porous polyvinyl alcohol / biochar / nanosilver polymer gel for drinking water treatment

Hang Zhao,Lvling Zhong,Juanqin Xue,Xuexiang Li,Zhihui Hu,Liang Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-91833-9

Hang Zhao, Lvling Zhong + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91833-9

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Abstract

Microbial contamination in drinking water has become an important threat to human health. There is thus an urgent need to develop antibacterial materials to treat drinking water. Here, porous silver-loaded biochar (C–Ag) was prepared using corn straw as the substrate and silver as the antibacterial agent. C–Ag was then uniformly distributed in polyvinyl alcohol gel beads of eluted calcium carbonate to prepare p-PVA/C–Ag antibacterial composite. The polymer composites were tested by FT-IR, XRD, SEM and TG-DSC. The results showed that C–Ag was more evenly distributed in the PVA gel spheres. Antibacterial experiments showed that p-PVA/C–Ag greatly inhibited Escherichia coli. Practical application tests revealed that p-PVA/C–Ag showed high and sustained bactericidal inhibition and reusability. Generally, p-PVA/C–Ag composite shows high potential to be applied to drinking water treatment.

Highlights

Microbial contamination in drinking water has become an important threat to human health
Drinking water treatment requires more than simple filtration for ensuring that strict water quality testing standards are met; the removal of harmful microorganisms and heavy metals is often needed
Current standards of drinking water in China require the absence of pathogenic microorganisms in drinking water and specify that the contents of chemical substances in drinking water should adhere to strict limits (e.g., C u2+ 1 mg L−1 and P b2+ 0.01 mg L−1, GB5749-2006, China)

Summary

Introduction

Microbial contamination in drinking water has become an important threat to human health. P-PVA/C–Ag composite shows high potential to be applied to drinking water treatment. Drinking water treatment requires more than simple filtration for ensuring that strict water quality testing standards are met; the removal of harmful microorganisms and heavy metals is often needed. Adsorption and filtration are still the main methods for terminal drinking water treatment, and activated carbon is the most commonly used adsorbent. The key to ensuring that water quality is sufficient for human health is to develop an efficient, durable, low-cost and pollution-free water treatment material to address the aforementioned problems. Ag requires a supporting matrix to sustain its morphological characteristics[21], and biochar can play this role This complementary effect makes the highly porous silver biochar effective in killing microorganisms in water

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