Nano-structured poly amic acid membranes for enhanced water filtration Naumih Noah 2 , Maxwell Obumba 1 , Mildred Nawiri 2 1 Kenyatta University, Kenya, 2 School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, United States International University, Kenya In developing countries like Kenya, many people especially children die every year from waterborne diseases emanating from the use and drinking of unsafe water. The best way to minimize these effects is to provide people with safe sources of drinking water, good sanitation, adequate housing, and access to health care. Nanotechnology has the potential to deliver affordable and effective solutions for water sanitation/purification, providing access to safe drinking water to millions of people. This will improve quality of life and can reduce hospital visits due the waterborne diseases thus cutting the government’s health budget significantly. In this work, we have developed nanostructured conducting poly (amic) acid (nPAA) membranes with experimentally-controlled particle size, and surface functionalities to selectively isolate and remove diverse chemical and pathogenic biological pollutants in water at the point of use. This was done by embedding silver and gold nanoparticles in the PAA membranes/films which changes the properties of the membrane, making it hydrophilic so that water passes through more efficiently. These nanoparticles can be easily synthesized and have shown impressive anti-microbial agents for the longest. The nanostructured thin films were fabricated via thermal and wet phase inversion techniques and then tested against the microbes Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus following standard tests. The crystallinity and dispersion of Au/Ag nanoparticles on the fabricated films were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and UV-Visible spectroscopy. The membranes can be utilized in modeling a Point-of-Use water filtration cartilage capable of eliminating the water quality problem in the developing world.
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© The Author(s), 2021
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