Tubular ceramic membranes coated with ZnO and applied in the disinfection of water contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract In this study, commercial ceramic membranes of mullite and of alumina were coated with nanostructured ZnO using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) as the connecting molecule between ceramic and ZnO. The characterization of ceramic membranes containing ZnO was performed by SEM, EDS and ICP-OES. The membranes without and with ZnO coating were applied in microfiltration tests to evaluate their antimicrobial capacity in the disinfection of distilled water contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus. In the microfiltration tests, ceramic membranes without the ZnO coating showed low efficiency in water disinfection, 35 and 45%, for mullite and alumina membranes, respectively. After the coating with nanostructured ZnO, both membranes showed disinfection efficiencies greater than 99%. The results obtained justify the application of ZnO as a promising coating on both mullite and alumina membranes for application in microfiltration aiming the disinfection of water contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus.