Inactivation of Enterococcus Faecalis in Drinking Water using Silver Nanoparticles Embedded Paper

Abstract

In this paper, a cellulose paper was impregnated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for the purpose of removing Enterococcus faecalis from drinking water. AgNPs papers were prepared by chemical reduction of silver nitrate (AgNO3) with various concentrations (0.005 M, 0.01 M, 0.015 M, and 0.025 M) using sodium borohydride (NaBH4) as a reducing agent. Two ratios of NaBH4/AgNO3 of 2:1and 10:1 were used to show the effect of reduction on the formation and removal efficiencies of AgNPs. AgNPs papers were characterized using SEM and TEM. TEM images showed that the silver nanoparticles size in the papers varies from 1.3 to 75 nm.