Preparation and characterization of antibacterial silver-dispersed polymer membranes

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a water filtration system that can filter the water from bacteria such as E. coli and bacillus subtilis. Type of membrane to be used was hollow fiber because it has more surface area to volume compare to flat sheet membrane. Hollow fiber membrane was impregnated with silver particles in size of nanoparticles. Additive such as polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and 2,4,6-triaminopyrimidine (TAP) was used to finely distribute the silver across the membrane. Both of this additive was added separately and compared in term of water flux and antibacterial properties. From the finding, PVP-PES-Ag (PPA) show more water flux and permeability compare to TAP-PES-Ag (TPA) because the addition of PVP has aided in formation of pore inside the membrane. In the test, PPA membrane give 79.2 L. m-2 h-1 pa-1 of water flux compare to TPA membrane that only achieved 38.4 L. m-2 h-1 pa-1 and this result show that PVP has twice flux performance than TAP. As for antibacterial properties, the TPA membrane remarkable result against E. coli and bacillus subtilis. PPA membrane only shows small bacteria inhibition area against E. coli and bacillus subtilis. Agar diffusion test was used in order to evaluate performance of each membrane, after one day the TPA membrane show an inhibition area was 1.22 cm2 and PVP only give 0.31 cm2. This give the conclusion that TAP can retain silver from leaching during membrane casting unlike PVP that only help in the formation of pore on membrane matrix.