Aminated polyethersulfone-silver nanoparticles (AgNPs-APES) compositemembranes with controlled silver ion release for antibacterial and water treatment applications
Loading...
Date
2016-02-10
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Materials Science and Engineering C
Abstract
The present study reports the antibacterial disinfection properties of a series of silver nanoparticle (AgNP)
immobilized membranes. Initially, polyethersulfone (PES) was functionalized through the introduction of
amino groups to form aminated polyethersulfone (NH2-PES, APES). AgNPs were then coordinately immobilized
on the surface of the APES composite membrane to formAgNPs-APES. The properties of the obtainedmembrane
were examined by FT-IR, XPS, XRD, TGA, ICP-OES and SEM-EDAX analyses. These structural characterizations
revealed that AgNPs ranging from 5 to 40 nm were immobilized on the surface of the polymer membrane.
Antibacterial tests of the samples showed that the AgNPs-APES exhibited higher activity than the AgNPs-PES
un-functionalized membrane. Generally, the AgNPs-APES 1 cm × 3 cm strip revealed a four times longer life
than the un-functionalized AgNPs polymer membranes. The evaluation of the Ag+ leaching properties of the
obtained samples indicated that approximately 30% of the AgNPs could be retained, even after 12 days of operation.
Further analysis indicated that silver ion release can be sustained for approximately 25 days. The present
study provides a systematic and novel approach to synthesize water treatment membranes with controlled
and improved silver (Ag+) release to enhance the lifetime of the membranes.
Description
Keywords
silver nanoparticles, Leaching, Polyether sulfone, Antibacterial activities, Composite membranes