Multifunctional polycaprolactone–lignin–silver nanocomposite membranes for simultaneous removal of heavy metal, nutrient and microbial contaminants from wastewater
6 affiliations
- 1Water Treatment and Desalination Unit, Hydrogeochemistry Department, Water Resources and Desert Soils Division, Desert Research Center P. O. B. 11753 Cairo Egypt.
- 2Egypt Desalination Research Center of Excellence, Desert Research Center Cairo 11753 Egypt.
- 3Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University Giza Egypt.
- 4Department of Physics, College of Science, Taif University Taif Saudi Arabia.
- 5Chemical Metrology Division, National Institute of Standards (NIS) Tersa Street, El Haram, P. O. Box 136 Giza 12211 Egypt [email protected].
- 6Nanotechnology Research Centre (NTRC), The British University in Egypt El Sherouk City Cairo Egypt.
Abstract
Fabricating multifunctional membranes from sustainable and innovative materials has become a significant focus in both academic and industry, as membranes can remove heavy metals and pathogenic contaminants from wastewater in a single step. This research introduces a multifunctional membrane composed of lignin (L) modified silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) incorporated into renewable polycaprolactone (PCL), resulting in cost-effective and highly crosslinked membranes produced through a solvent-casting approach. A comprehensive series of characterizations and tests were performed to evaluate the membranes' performance, including Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mechanical testing, and adsorption experiments, as well as microbial colony count and antibacterial activity. Among the different formulations, the membrane containing 1 wt% of L-Ag NPs showed optimal performance, achieving a tensile stress of 22.80 MPa. Whereas the membrane containing 2 wt% L-Ag NPs exhibited significant removal efficiencies, achieving 94.06% for Cd²⁺, 92.18% for PO₄ ³⁻, and 87.76% for NO₃ ⁻ at pH 6 and 90 min at 50 °C. The kinetic, isotherm, and thermodynamic characteristics of adsorption performance were examined, which showed that the elimination procedure using the PCL-L-Ag 2% NPs membrane was endothermic and increased randomness at the solid/solution interface. Notably, the membrane maintained regeneration efficiencies of 82.7%, 75.9%, and 72.4% for Cd²⁺, PO₄ ³⁻, and NO₃ ⁻, respectively, after three consecutive cycles, demonstrating excellent operational stability and reusability. Moreover, bacterial colony counting showed that PCL-L-Ag NPs at 2% caused a marked reduction in total viable microbe counts after 48 h, reaching 8.4 × 10³ CFU mL⁻¹ (97.10% improvement), comparable to the PCL blank (6.9 × 10⁵ CFU mL⁻¹). These results were further corroborated by antibacterial activity. The PCL-L-Ag 2% NPs membrane exhibits strong potential as a reusable, multifunctional material for treating real agricultural drainage water, effectively reducing both inorganic pollutants and microbial contaminants.
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BibTeX
@article{isawi2026multifunctional,
title = {{Multifunctional polycaprolactone–lignin–silver nanocomposite membranes for simultaneous removal of heavy metal, nutrient and microbial contaminants from wastewater}},
author = {Heba Isawi and Mohamed H Hemida and Emad M Ahmed and Hesham Moustafa},
journal = {RSC advances},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1039/d6ra09564j},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13719270},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Multifunctional polycaprolactone–lignin–silver nanocomposite membranes for simultaneous removal of heavy metal, nutrient and microbial contaminants from wastewater
AU - Heba Isawi
AU - Mohamed H Hemida
AU - Emad M Ahmed
AU - Hesham Moustafa
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - RSC advances
DO - 10.1039/d6ra09564j
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13719270
AB - Fabricating multifunctional membranes from sustainable and innovative materials has become a significant focus in both academic and industry, as membranes can remove heavy metals and pathogenic contaminants from wastewater in a single step. This research introduces a multifunctional membrane composed of lignin (L) modified silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) incorporated into renewable polycaprolactone (PCL), resulting in cost-effective and highly crosslinked membranes produced through a solvent-casting approach. A comprehensive series of characterizations and tests were performed to evaluate the membranes' performance, including Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mechanical testing, and adsorption experiments, as well as microbial colony count and antibacterial activity. Among the different formulations, the membrane containing 1 wt% of L-Ag NPs showed optimal performance, achieving a tensile stress of 22.80 MPa. Whereas the membrane containing 2 wt% L-Ag NPs exhibited significant removal efficiencies, achieving 94.06% for Cd²⁺, 92.18% for PO₄ ³⁻, and 87.76% for NO₃ ⁻ at pH 6 and 90 min at 50 °C. The kinetic, isotherm, and thermodynamic characteristics of adsorption performance were examined, which showed that the elimination procedure using the PCL-L-Ag 2% NPs membrane was endothermic and increased randomness at the solid/solution interface. Notably, the membrane maintained regeneration efficiencies of 82.7%, 75.9%, and 72.4% for Cd²⁺, PO₄ ³⁻, and NO₃ ⁻, respectively, after three consecutive cycles, demonstrating excellent operational stability and reusability. Moreover, bacterial colony counting showed that PCL-L-Ag NPs at 2% caused a marked reduction in total viable microbe counts after 48 h, reaching 8.4 × 10³ CFU mL⁻¹ (97.10% improvement), comparable to the PCL blank (6.9 × 10⁵ CFU mL⁻¹). These results were further corroborated by antibacterial activity. The PCL-L-Ag 2% NPs membrane exhibits strong potential as a reusable, multifunctional material for treating real agricultural drainage water, effectively reducing both inorganic pollutants and microbial contaminants.
SN - 2046-2069
ER -