Öl- und Gasforschung

Abstrakt

Synthesis and characterization of bioactive composite material comprising silver nanoparticles and activated carbon to produce bacteria free potable water.

Muhammad Aslam Tahir

Composite material of silver nano-particles (SNPs) and activatedcarbon was synthesized by wet chemical method. Morphologyand particle size of SNPs were investigated by ScanningElectron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy(TEM) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). Particle sizeobtained from XRD data analysis using Debye Scherer formulacomes out around 14nm while crystalline structure of SNPswas investigated as face centered cubic (fcc). Morphology ofSNPs in activated carbon was studied using SEM. It showswell distributed, circular shaped SNPs and their agglomeratesin pores of activated carbon. Presence of silver in the nano-composite was confirmed through Energy Dispersive X-ray(EDX) analysis. TEM shows majority of nanoparticles lyingin the range between 10 to 20 nm while presence of metallicphase (fcc) of silver was further confirmed through electrondiffraction studies. Microbiological activity of composite asantibacterial was examined through flow method, using opensource water infected by Gram-negative (E. coli). One (1) gm.of nano-composite was found effective in sterilizing up to 55Lof infected water. Antibacterial efficacy of the nano-compositewas further verified against B. Subtilis and E. coli using diskdiffusion method. Overall results show that composite materialis a promising candidate for purification of open source water.