Water disinfection using Ag nanoparticle–CuO nanowire co-modified 3D copper foam nanocomposites in high flow under low voltages

Abstract

With rapid economic development, water pollution has become more and more serious, which has gravely threatened people's lives and health. Therefore, safe and efficient water treatment becomes an important problem that needs to be solved urgently. Electroporation sterilization has been introduced to water treatment due to its high efficiency and low energy consumption, which shows a significant sterilization effect. However, the slow water treatment limits its practical application. Herein, we prepared an Ag NP–CuO NW co-modified three-dimensional (3D) copper nanocomposite. Based on the electroporation sterilization technology, this composite material exhibited a high efficiency sterilization effect (>99.9%) with an ultrahigh water flux at a low voltage and has significant potential for practical applications.