An overview of silver nano-particles as promising materials for water disinfection

Abstract

Abstract Open defecation, improper disposal of sewer line wastes and mismanagement of infectious biomedical wastes may cause severe biological contamination to the water reservoirs. On the other hand, high demand of drinking water has become again a challenge in terms of maintaining hygiene, safe and cleanliness. Nano-technological approaches can play significant roles in the efficient and effective disinfection of drinking water for the continuously growing world’s population without generating toxic byproducts. Non-conventional water disinfection process (or microbial inactivation) using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) has many advantages over the other nanoparticles (NPs) because of their bactericidal, fungicidal, veridical and oligodynamic properties. It can also be conveniently incorporated into different porous cellulosic materials. Recently, it has been observed that silver-based porous nanocomposites (AgNCs) were efficiently deactivated the bacteria and viruses up to 99%–100% from drinking water. In many studies, silver based nanoparticles are found able to kill around 99.99% for E. coli and MS2 bacteriophage viruses. The present review is aimed at (1) describing the recent advances for AgNPs preparation, (2) explaining the incorporation of AgNPs into paper, polyurethane, ceramic, cotton fabrics and other polymers for water disinfection process, (3) discussing the mechanism of water disinfection/microbial inactivation using AgNPs and AgNCs, and (4) also illustrated that how water sanitation can be helpful to achieve sustainable development goals using silver NPs based developed disinfection systems? Moreover, a number of limitations and future scope have also been discussed. This review will be useful to the researchers and competent authorities engaged in water conservation and management to prepare more effective strategies by using AgNPs and AgNCs.