Silver Nanowire-Modified Filter with Controllable Silver Ion Release for Point-of-Use Disinfection

Abstract

Waterborne diseases related to unsafe water are still major threats to public health in some developing countries and rural areas. Providing affordable and safe drinking water globally remains a great challenge in the coming decades. In this study, we develop a high-throughput and conductive silver nanowire (AgNW)-modified composite filter via depositing thin and ultralong AgNWs on a macroporous substrate. An electrochemical filtration cell (EFC) equipped with the composite filter achieves controllable Ag⁺ release at a μg L^-1 level and superior bacterial inactivation performance (>6-log inactivation efficiency) with an operation voltage of only 1 V at a high flux of 100 m³ h^-1 m^-2. Under such operation conditions, each composite filter (effective area: 0.79 cm²) can treat at least 750 mL of the bacterial suspension (∼10⁷ CFU mL^-1 of Escherichia coli) with a low effluent Ag⁺ concentration below 50 μg L^-1 and almost negligible energy consumption of only ∼70 J m^-3.