Biogenic nanosilver incorporated reverse osmosis membrane for antibacterial and antifungal activities against selected pathogenic strains: An enhanced eco-friendly water disinfection approach

Abstract

Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes have been used extensively in water desalination plants, waste water treatment in industries, agricultural farms and drinking water production applications. The objective of this work is to impart antibacterial and antifungal activities to commercially available RO membrane used in water purification systems by incorporating biogenic silver nanoparticles(AgNPs) synthesized using Rosa indica wichuriana hybrid leaf extract. The morphology and surface topography of uncoated and AgNPs-coated RO membrane were studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Elemental composition of the AgNPs-coated RO membrane was analyzed by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX). The functional groups were identified by Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Hydrophilicity of the uncoated and AgNPs-coated RO membrane was analyzed using water contact angle measurements. The thermal properties were studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The AgNPs incorporated RO membrane exhibited good antibacterial and antifungal activities against pathogenic bacterial strains such as E. coli, S. aureus, M. luteus, K. pneumoniae, and P. aeruginosa and fungal strains such as Candida tropicalis, C. krusei, C. glabrata, and C. albicans.

Silver Nanoparticles as Potential Antibacterial Agents

“…Alteration of membrane [28,41,47] Listeria monocytogenes Morphological changes, separation of the cytoplasmic membrane from the cell wall, plasmolysis [47] Micrococcus luteus Alteration of membrane [28] Nitrifying bacteria inhibits respiratory activity [31] Pseudomonas aeruginosa Irreversible damage on bacterial cells; Alteration of membrane permeability and respiration [17,28,32,33,36,[41][42][43][44][48][49][50] Proteus mirabilis Alteration of cell wall and cytoplasm. [43,44] …”

“…Alteration of membrane permeability and respiration [26,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] …”

Current Development of Silver Nanoparticle Preparation, Investigation, and Application in the Field of Medicine

“…As discussed, the evidence supporting AgNPs as an effective antimicrobial agent is abundant with AgNPs showing broad-spectrum resistance to bacterial strains such as S. aureus (including methicillin resistant strains, known as MRSA), Staphylococcus epidermidis (including methicillin resistant strains, known as MRSE), Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella pneumonia and even vancomycin-resistant strains [7,31,32,36,40,42,43].…”

“…With the increasing number of infections due to multidrug resistant bacteria, there has been a need for effective antimicrobial alternatives. Thus, silver is a great alternative because it is an antiseptic that targets a broad spectrum of Gram + and Gram − bacteria as well as vancomycin-resistant strains [7,31,36,40,43]. Moreover, silver-resistant bacteria are rarely observed in hospital microbial germ flora because silver resistance requires one generation of bacteria to undergo three separate mutations in three different bacterial systems [31,44].…”

“…Currently, the unique antimicrobial properties of AgNPs have led to their application in areas such as clothing manufacturing, food preservation, and water purification [33][34][35][36]. More importantly, AgNPs are being increasingly utilized in the medical industry due to their antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and osteoinductive effects as well as their ability to enhance wound healing [32,[37][38][39][40][41][42].…”