Catalytical and antibacterial sugarcane filter decorated with sliver nanoparticle for water treatment

Abstract The natural hierarchical porous of sugarcane makes it become a desirable catalytical filter reactor, but its application in treatment of organic dyes or bacterial contaminated water has not been completely explored. Herein, sliver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were uniformly in situ decorated in sugarcane’s channels. The hierarchical channels of sugarcane with perforated plates facilitated the exposure of pollutant to Ag NPs immobilized on the channel surface as the liquor filtrating through the filter. The Ag NPs/sugarcane filter exhibited a distinguished catalytical performance with an effective methylene blue (MB) degradation efficiency of ∼99 %. The Ag NPs/sugarcane filter also unveiled an excellent bactericidal property against E. coli and S. aureus when the bacteria contaminated water was filtrated through or impregnated with the Ag NPs/sugarcane filter. The bactericidal mainly contributed to the reactive oxygen species (ROS) in bacteria cell induced by Ag NPs which was confirmed by the ROS detection. This work provides a desirable and low-cost bio-based material for MB and bacterial contaminated water treatment.