Preparation of antimicrobial activated carbon fiber by loading with silver nanoparticles

Abstract Antibacterial activated carbon fiber (ACF) is required in water treatment because bacteria may accumulate and reproduce on the biocompatible ACF. In this paper, nano silver particles were loaded on ACF by vacuum impregnation and green reduction method, and the effects of reaction concentration, temperature and time were investigated, and the structure, antibacterial activities and adsorption performance of ACF were measured. The silver loaded ACF (prepared at 0.1 mmol/L of AgNO3, 50 °C for 1 h) shows high silver loading (0.13%), low Ag dissolution, excellent antibacterial activity, and wonderful adsorption capacity for phenol (290 mg/g, about 1.2 times that of pristine ACF), indicating great potential in water treatment applications. This work provides a green and economical method for the preparation of Ag@ACF.