Modification of polyethersulfone incorporated with polyvinylpyrrolidone - iodine via phase inversion and ultraviolet photo grafting for antibacterial applications

Abstract

Incorporation of antibacterial agents into polymeric membrane is one the widely studied surface modification. Polyethersulfone (PES) membrane incorporated with polyvinylpyrrolidone-iodine (PVP-I) were prepared using phase inversion and UV induced photo-grafting techniques. The modified PES-PVP-I membranes were characterized in term of gravimetric analysis, FT-IR analysis, FESEM analysis, water flux, contact angle, porosity measurement and antibacterial effect against Escherichia coli (E.coli) and Bacillus subtilis (B.subtilis). The high water flux indicated by PES-4 and PES-7 show an improvement by the addition of PVP-I by 52 % to 62% higher compared to original PES membrane. For the UV method, the water flux decline with the increasing of irradiation time by 31 to 35% compared to the commercial original PES membrane. PES-PVP-I membranes with 10 wt% of iodine concentration developed by phase inversion and UV photo-grafting show strong antibacterial properties using halo zone test. The highest inhibition zone of PES-PVP-I membranes produced using UV photo-grafting and phase inversions against E.coli were 2.30cm2 and 1.88cm2 and against B.subtilis were 0.41cm2 and 0.48cm2. The results indicated that both methods used were favorable towards antibacterial properties with high inhibition zone and as well as in the improvement in water flux, contact angle and porosity of PES-PVP-I membranes compared to the original PES. This study shows that PES-PVP-I membrane suitable to be used in wide variety of antibacterial applications.