Combined Effect of Ultrasonication, UV Light and Silver Nanoparticles on Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

Physical methods of waste water treatment are useful in water purification & recycling. Combined effect of Ultrasound, UV-C, & Silver nanoparticles offers an attractive proposition in the area of water purification. This work cus across various chemicaal, biological & physical boundaries, though, nanotechnology offers an efficient removal of pollutants & germs. Ultrasound reactor technology in liquid leads to acoustic cavitation phenomena, such as formation, growth & collapse of bubbles, accompained by the generation of local high temperature, pressure and reactive radical species. The possible mechanism by which cells are renderd inviable during ultrasound irradiation include free radical attack, includind hydroxyl radical attack, and physical disruption of cell membrane. Furthermore, Ultrasound irradiadtion can facilitate the disagglomeration of microrgansims and thus increase the efficiency of other chemica disinfectants. Present study established the combined effect of US+ UV + NP and suggested that it may be more effective than individual. It has been proposed tht this may be useful technique in water purification systems. Experiments ere conducted using Ultrasonication at three different time intervals (15 min, 30 min & 45 min) followed by three different UV dose ( 104 mJ/cm2, 216 mJ/cm2, 324 mJ/cm2) which was further followed by Ag nanoparticles treatment at three different doses such as 5µg/ml, 10µg/ml, 15µg/ml for different treatment intervals ( 3 hrs, 6 hrs, 9 hrs & 12 hrs). It was found that as the treatment time and the dose were increased , better results were obtained n terms of bacterial count i.e. lesser growth of bacteria were seen on petri plate.