Effect of Chloride Ions on the Point-of-Use Drinking Water Disinfection Performance of Porous Ceramic Media Embedded with Metallic Silver and Copper

Abstract

This study quantifies the effects of chloride ions on silver and copper release from porous ceramic cubes embedded with silver and copper and its effect on E. coli disinfection in drinking water. Log-reduction of E. coli by silver ions decreased after 4 h of contact time as the chloride ion concentration increased from 0 to 250 mg/L but, it was not changed by copper ions under the same conditions. For silver addition by silver-ceramic cubes, log reductions of E. coli decreased sharply from 7.2 to 1.6 after 12 h as the chloride concentration increased from 0 to 250 mg/L. For the silver-ceramic cube experiments, chloride ion also reduced the total silver concentration in solution. After 24 h, total silver concentrations in solution decreased from 61 µg/L to 20 µg/L for corresponding chloride ion concentrations. According to the MINTEQ equilibrium model analysis, the decrease in disinfection ability with silver embedded ceramic cubes could be the result of precipitation of silver ions as silver chloride. This suggests that AgCl was precipitating within the pore space of the ceramic. These results indicate that, although ionic silver is a highly effective disinfectant for E. coli, the presence of chloride ions can significantly reduce disinfection efficacy. For copper-ceramic cubes, log reductions of E. coli by copper embedded cubes increased from 1.2 to 1.5 when chloride ion concentration increased from 0 to 250 mg/L. Total copper concentrations in solution increased from 4 µg/L to 14 µg/L for corresponding chloride ion concentrations. These results point towards the synergistic effect of chloride ions on copper oxidation as an increased concentration of chloride enhances copper release.