Development and Characterization of Microfilter Based on Cellulosic Cotton Fabrics Decorated with Silver Nanoparticles for Congo Red Dye Degradation and Disinfecting Pathogenic Bacteria from Contaminated Water

To tackle the intense concern about low-priced drinking water point-of-use techniques, cotton fabric (CF) microfilters (MF) loaded with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were utilized to degrade the carcinogenic Congo red (CR) dye as well as deactivate pathogenic bacteria. In the present study, AgNPs were precisely synthesized using Gum Arabic as reducing and stabilizing agent, leading to spherical nanoparticles with a small size (24 nm) with monodispersity (PdI = 0.468), as proved by TEM and DLS analysis. The bleached cotton fabric was immersed in AgNPs solution and then dried and cured at 130 °C to make functionalized cotton fabrics suitable for filtration and dye degradation. Morphology, microstructure, and chemical composition were assessed using SEM and EDX analysis, suggesting the incorporation and deposition of AgNPs as fine particles to the surface of the cotton fabric. The AgNPs@CF-MF were tested in laboratories to determine their capability to perform CR removal and neutralize bacteria. The research showed that the same dose of CR dye obtained higher photocatalytic breakage percentages under the light source and the photocatalyst. The findings of our study indicate that the photocatalytic degradation of CR dye exhibited the optimal efficiency when the concentration was maintained at 10 ppm. The degradation efficiency reached to 100