Aminated polyethersulfone-silver nanoparticles (AgNPs-APES) composite membranes with controlled silver ion release for antibacterial and water treatment applications

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 form AgNPs-APES. The properties of the obtained membrane 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 x 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. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work was supported by the Human Resources Development program (Grant No. 20124030200130) of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP); the grant was funded by the Korean government through the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Also we are indebted to the support of the Hanyang University Research Fund (HY-2015-P). Authors gratefully recognize the Higher Education Commission, government of Pakistan for PhD funding