It is of considerable significance to develop efficient and robust water purification technologies because of the increasing population and the serious water pollution. Herein, we proposed a facile strategy to synthesize a multifunctional water treatment agent, via one-pot grafting of antibacterial polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) onto porous microspheres (PMSs) constructed by poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) and Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles. The resulting PHMB-g-PMS exhibited prominent disinfection performance and a high adsorption capacity for dye pollutants. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the microspheres against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were 2.0 and 3.9 μg/mL, respectively. The adsorption capacities for Congo red (CR) and acid fuchsin (AF) were 2422 and 885 mg/g, respectively, and the adsorption processes of the microspheres toward CR and AF match with the Langmuir and pseudo-second-order models. Moreover, pollutant-loaded microspheres were readily collected using a magnet and regenerated effectively using NaOH solution. After seven adsorption− desorption cycles, PHMB-g-PMS still showed excellent reusability with 100% inactivation of Escherichia coli and around 80% removal efficiency for AF. In summary, the prepared magnetic porous microspheres exhibit tremendous potential for removing multiple contaminants by an all-in-one process.
The contamination of pathogenic micro-organisms
and heavy metals
in drinking water sources poses a serious threat to human health,
which raises the demand for efficient water treatments. Herein, multi-functional
capacitive deionization (CDI) electrodes were developed for the simultaneous
decontamination of bacteria and heavy metal contaminants. Polyhexamethylene
guanidine (PHMG), an antibacterial polymer, was deposited on the surface
of the activated carbon (AC) electrode with the assistance of mussel-inspired
polydopamine (PDA) chemistry. The main characterization results proved
successful co-deposition of PDA and PHMG on the AC electrode, forming
a hydrophilic coating layer in one step. Electrochemical analyses
indicated that the AC-PDA/PHMG electrodes presented satisfactory capacitive
behaviors, with outstanding salt adsorption capacity and cycling stability.
The modified electrodes also exhibit excellent disinfection performance
and heavy metal adsorption performance. The bacterial elimination
rate of co-deposited electrodes grew along with the increase in the
PHMG content. Particularly, AC-PDA/PHMG2 electrodes successfully
removed and deactivated 99.11% Escherichia coli and 98.67% Pseudomonas aeruginosa (104 CFU mL–1) in water within 60 min.
Furthermore, three flow cells made by AC-PDA/PHMG2 electrodes
connected in series achieved efficient removal of salt, heavy metals
such as lead and cadmium, and bacteria simultaneously, which indicated
that the adsorption performance is significantly improved compared
with pristine AC electrodes. These results denote the enormous potential
of this one-step prepared multi-functional electrodes for facile and
effective water purification using CDI technology.
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