Antibacterial Filtration Using Polyethylene Terephthalate Filters Coated with Copper Nanoparticles

The purpose of this study is to produce antibacterial filters based on a commercial polyethylene terephthalate (PET) filter with pores larger than bacterial cells. The antibacterial agent was copper nanoparticles (CuNP) which were synthesized and deposited on the PET filter by reducing copper(II) ions using sodium hypophosphite (NaH2PO2) as the reducing agent and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as the capping agent. Scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy confirmed the presence of 150–300 nm CuNP on the surface of PET filters. We evaluated the amounts of deposited CuNP using a colorimetric method and the antibacterial-filtration capacity of CuNP/PET filters against Escherichia coli using the colony counting method. The reaction conditions were optimized successively using the one-factor-at-a-time approach for the concentration of copper precursor, the concentration of PVP, and the reaction time. The results showed that an initial 1 M CuSO4, 0.8% w / v PVP, and 10-20 min of reaction resulted in a CuNP/PET filter with the highest antibacterial activity: 5.2 log cfu/mL reduction for Escherichia coli and 5.6 log cfu/mL reduction or Staphylococcus aureus. SEM images demonstrated the damages of the bacterial cells after passing through the CuNP/PET filter. ICP-MS analysis of the first liter of filtrate showed that the copper concentration of released copper was 0.6 ± 0.1  ppm, which is below the WHO standard for drinking water. Therefore, these CuNP/PET filters are promising for point-of-use disinfection of water, where clean potable water is not sufficient.