Preparation and Characterization Silver Nanoparticle Embedded Polyamide Nanofiltration (NF) Membrane

Abstract

In this study, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized from tea leaves extract and its antimicrobial properties was tested on Escherichia coli (E. coli) using agar well method. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by using UV-vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The result from XRD analysis shows that the synthesized AgNPs are a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure with an average particle size of 28±15 nm AgNPs which confirmed by TEM. The synthesized AgNPs were then used in the preparation of thin film composite NF membrane via interfacial polymerization method. Separation performance of the produced membrane was evaluated in term of membrane permeability and solute rejection (vitamin B12, NaCl and Na2SO4 solutions). Based on the structural parameters (pore size, rp and Δx/Ak) values obtained from vitamin B12 test, all membranes can be considered as tight NF membranes. From the salts rejection test, membranes with the addition of AgNPs exhibited higher salt rejection compared to the neat membranes.