Fabrication and characterization of nanoparticles/PMMA electrospun nanofiber membranes

Currently, one of the most serious problems is to maintain the water balance in terms of quality and quantity. In recent times, membrane technology is considered to be essential as it ensures high water quality with low cost and maintenance of sustainable water resources. In this work different membranes were fabricated by electrospinning technique. PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) was used as a base polymer material and the silver nanoparticles, silver nanowires or titanium dioxide were incorporated into the matrix. The aim was to produce polymeric membranes containing nanoparticles, fabricated by electrospinning in order to obtain the highest bactericidal effect for water treatment. The bactericidal effect was observed for three kinds of membranes however, the best results were obtained by the silver nanoparticles membrane with the in situ manufacturing method. The distribution of the nanoparticles in this membrane resulted more uniform, the size of the nanoparticles was smaller and the texture was the most mechanically resistant