Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology

Synthesis, characterisation and application of silver-doped carbon nanotubes and nanoporous polymers for purification of water samples

4^th International Conference on Nanotek & Expo

December 01-03, 2014 DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Francisco Airport, USA

Lutendo Evelyn Rananga and Takalani Magadzu

Accepted Abstracts: J Nanomed Nanotechnol

Abstract:

Potable water is water that is safe enough to be consumed by humans or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. World-wide, insufficient access to portable water and use of sources contaminated with disease vectors, pathogens, and unacceptable levels of toxins is a huge problem. Reduction of waterborne diseases is a major public health goal in developing countries. Nanotechnology offers the possibility of an efficient removal of pollutants and microorganisms from water. Different nanocomposites constituting of silver on β-cyclodextrin and multi-walled carbon nanotubes were prepared by reductive pre-treatment method. Comparison of absorption efficiencies of the nanocomposites and their antibacterial activities were investigated during water disinfection. The morphology, elemental analysis and crystalline structure of all nanocomposites were carried out using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX). All the nanocomposites prepared have shown abilities in absorption of organic contaminants and have good antibacterial activities. Water disinfection results revealed that 1wt.% Ag-doped MWCNTs/β-CD produced 100% antibacterial activity after 10 minutes of interaction, compared with 32wt.% Ag-MWCNTs and 10wt.% Ag/β-CD which presented 95% and 97%, respectively. The 1wt.% MWCNTs/β-CD also had better absorption efficiency towards organic contaminated water.

Biography :

Lutendo Evelyn Rananga has completed her MSc at the age of 27 years from University of Limpopo and is currently doing her PhD at the same University. She is a deputy student leader of the South African nanotechnology initiative and has facilitated a number of nanotechnology awareness workshops. She has published 1 journal with an international journal and still have more papers submitted for publication.