Efficient and sustainable photocatalytic inactivation of E. coli by an innovative immobilized Ag/TiO2 photocatalyst with peroxymonosulfate (PMS) under visible light.

A novel catalytic system for effective photocatalytic inactivation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) was constructed by anchoring Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) on silane coupling agent (SCA) pretreated TiO2 nano-tube arrays (Ag/SCA/TiO2NTAs). Morphology and structural analyses revealed that SCA could disperse AgNPs evenly on TiO2NTAs, thus inducing a superior surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect. Ag/SCA/TiO2NTAs catalyst exhibited excellent inactivation performance when in the presence of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) and visible light (VL), with 6-log E. coli was completely inactivated within 60 min, which was 5.3, 12.5 and 13.2 times higher than that of Ag/SCA/TiO2NTAs/VL, PMS/VL and Ag/SCA/TiO2NTAs/PMS/dark systems, respectively. Additionally, the photocatalyst exhibited a highly reusable property, with the inactivation performance almost unchanged after ten cycles of uses with minimal Ag leaching. The inactivation mechanism analysis demonstrated that both radical (SO4•-, OH) and non-radical (h+, 1O2) pathways involved in E. coli inactivation, and SCA played a pivotal role in the production of reactive species. Chloride ions (Cl-) greatly enhanced the inactivation efficiency, while bicarbonate (HCO3-) and phosphate (H2PO4-) showed an inhibitory effect. Humic acid (HA) displayed a dual effect on inactivation performance, where the low concentration of HA facilitated the bacteria inactivation, while the higher dose suppressed bacteria inactivation. Moreover, the system exhibited excellent inactivation performance in tap water. This work first used SCA as the binder to fix AgNPs on TiO2NTAs for VL photocatalytic inactivation of bacteria with the assistance of PMS, which was expected to provide some insights into the practical treatment of drinking water.