Silver Oxide Nanoparticles-Modified Poly Vinyl Chloride Membranes to Enhance the Antibacterial Properties

S., Mansor E.; M., Amer A.; S., Abelsalam S.; A., Radwan; O., Abdel-Monem M.

doi:10.21608/eajbsg.2022.274740

Silver Oxide Nanoparticles-Modified Poly Vinyl Chloride Membranes to Enhance the Antibacterial Properties

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Water pollution Research Department, Environment and Climate Change Research Institute, National Research Centre, 33 El-Bohouth St. (Former El-Tahrir St.), Dokki, Cairo, Egypt.

² Holding Company for Water and Waste Water (HCWW), Qalyuibia, Egypt.

³ Botany and Microbiology, Department, Faculty of Science, Benha University, Benha, 13518, Egypt.

10.21608/eajbsg.2022.274740

Abstract

Develop nanocomposite membranes with antibacterial properties and other hydrophilic properties for usage in wastewater treatment. Co-precipitation was used to create nanoparticles of silver oxide (Ag₂O), which were then incorporated into polyvinyl chloride (PVC) flat sheet membranes made using the phase inversion procedure. Crystal structure and the production of Ag₂O nanoparticles may be confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) investigations, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Attenuated Total Reflection- Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), Mechanical properties, and contact angle were Sused to characterize both the unmodified membrane and the membrane that had been modified with Ag₂O in order to examine the distribution of the nanoparticles of Ag₂O within the PVC polymeric solution and the surface properties, thus highlighting the effect of the polymer/filler interfacial interactions. Improving the mechanical and wettability characteristics of the pristine PVC membrane with the insertion of Ag₂O nanoparticles is a major contribution of our study. The mechanical strength of the created modified PVC membrane with Ag₂O was high, with a young's modulus of 5.5 MPa, while the pristine PVC membrane has a modulus of 3.5 MPa; this is an important characteristic for the application of this type of membrane in a Holding Company of water and wastewater purification. At a permeate water productivity of 3.5 LMH, 92 percent of a target NOC concentration of 50 mg/L of humic acid was removed. Positive antibacterial effects of the modified membranes with Ag₂O were observed.

Keywords