Silver Nanowire-Modified Filter with Controllable Silver Ion Release for Point-of-Use Disinfection

Waterborne diseases related to unsafe water are still major threats to public health in some developing countries and rural areas. Providing affordable and safe drinking water globally remains a great challenge in the coming decades. In this study, we develop a high-throughput and conductive silver nanowire (AgNW)-modified composite filter via depositing thin and ultralong AgNWs on a macroporous substrate. An electrochemical filtration cell (EFC) equipped with the composite filter achieves controllable Ag+ release at a mu g L-1 level and superior bacterial inactivation performance (>6-log inactivation efficiency) with an operation voltage of only 1 V at a high flux of 100 m(3) h(-1) m(-2). Under such operation conditions, each composite filter (effective area: 0.79 cm(2)) can treat at least 750 mL of the bacterial suspension (similar to 10(7) CFU mL(-1) of Escherichia coli) with a low effluent Ag+ concentration below 50 mu g L-1 and almost negligible energy consumption of only similar to 70 J m(-3).