Spider-Web-Inspired SiO2/Ag nanofibrous aerogels with superelastic and conductive networks for electroporation water disinfection

Abstract

Water-borne pathogenic diseases significantly threaten human health and the global economy, and traditional water disinfection strategies such as chlorination or membrane filtration to remove pathogens still suffer from harmful byproducts, biofouling, and limited handling capacity. Here, a bottom-up strategy is reported to develop biomimetic nanofibrous aerogels with superelastic and conductive networks by assembling Ag nanowires in a 3D SiO2 nanofibrous skeleton via freeze-drying method for safe and efficient water disinfection. Inspired by the prey capture behavior of spiders using their webs, the core of this design is constructing spanning and interconnected networks with millions of conductive nanotips, which could inactivate microbes instantaneously based on the synergistic effect of interception and electroporation. Benefitting from the high porosity (99.81 %), superelasticity, and robust structural stability of the resultant aerogels, an electroporation-disinfection device (EDD) equipped with aerogels exhibits superior bactericidal (>99.9999 %) and virucidal (>99.9 %) performances at low derive voltage (1 V) and high flux (9900 L m−2 h−1) with energy consumption of 0.83 Wh m−3. This novel disinfection method provides new insights into practical water treatment in an efficient, environmental, and sustainable way.