Highly Efficient Bacteria Filtration and Total Elimination by Novel Metal-graphene Nanoribbons

Abstract

Environmental pollution has recently become one of the most essential issues and has received critical attention in the world. Both fine dust particles and airborne bacteria can penetrate the human body, causing diseases of the respiratory system and blood circulatory system. A filter membrane is capable of both filtering ultrafine dust and destroying bacteria that have been investigated. Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) were synthesized from the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by the unzipping method. Various densities of GNRs were coated on the porous stainless steel (PSS) via the vacuum filtration process. The structure of GNRs coating on the porous stainless steel was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The filter membrane was analyzed for their air resistance based on the pressure drop-air flow and showed the filtration efficiency of fine dust particles greater than 99%. The ability of this membrane to filter and destroy bacteria was demonstrated with a 6 A current and low voltage under 3 V in a short time of under 1 minute. The results indicated that the GNRs coated on PSS have high potential as filter membranes due to their efficiency and commercial ability for large-scale production for applications in various fields such as air purifiers, biomedicine, food processing, and water treatment.