Hybrid Chitosan-Silver Nanoparticles Enzymatically Embedded on Cork Filter Material for Water Disinfection

Lina Vanesa Garcia Peña, Petya Petkova, Rosanna Margalef-Marti, Marc Vives, Lorena Aguilar, Angel Gallegos, Antonio Francesko, Ilana Perelshtein, Aharon Gedanken, Ernest Mendoza, Juan Carlos Casas-Zapata, Jordi Morató, Tzanko Tzanov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

Microbial contamination remains a major challenge in drinking water supplies in developing regions, despite the continuous advances being made in water purification processes. The spread and transmission of pathogens due to consuming unsafe water culminate in waterborne diseases and increased number of deaths worldwide. Recently, the application of nanotechnology for water purification, and in particular the use of antibacterial nanoparticles (NPs) to control microbial contaminations, has received considerable interest. In this study, antibacterial chitosan-silver nanoparticles (CS/AgNPs) were enzymatically grafted on cork matrixes to design a water purification point-of-use device. The antibacterial efficiency of the constructed filtering system was further evaluated against water severely contaminated with Escherichia coli (∼107 CFU/mL). The system was tested in two operating filtration modes with varied water residence times. The antibacterial nanocomposite decreased the water bacterial contamination by 4 and 5 log CFU/mL when performing a series of continuous short disinfection cycles of 15 min residence time (experiment I). Nevertheless, complete bacteria removal was achieved only after increasing the water residence time in the filters up to 8 h (experiment II). Durability of the system was demonstrated via performing five disinfection cycles after which the hybrid CS/AgNPs remained on the cork surface. Importantly, the antibacterial nanocomposite prevented bacteria attachment and proliferation during all cycles of the disinfection process.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3599-3606
Number of pages8
JournalIndustrial and Engineering Chemistry Research
Volume56
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - 5 Apr 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Chemical Society.

Funding

FundersFunder number
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme720851

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