Fast and regenerative photocatalyst material for the disinfection of E. coli from water: Silver nano particle anchor on MOF-5

Ag@MOF-5 was fabricated successfully and used as a photocatalyst for the disinfection of water containing E. coli bacteria as a representative biological material. The compound was characterized by using various techniques like SEM, TEM, FTIR, XRD, UV-Visible spectrophotometry and Raman analysis. Ag@MOF-5 showed a rapid inactivation of > 91% bacteria in only 70 min of time under visible light irradiation. Silver nanoparticles play dual role as light absorbers as well as to assist electron capture center and catalyse the reactive oxygen species production reactions. The results shows that Ag@MOF-5 has very good photo-catalytic disinfection activity on E. coli infected water.