Sustainable nano-sodium silicate and silver nitrate impregnated locally made ceramic filters for point-of-use water treatments in sub-Sahara African households

Omeje Maxwell; Orere Faith Oghenerukevwe; O Adewoyin Olusegun; Emmanuel Sunday Joel; Ozieme Arinze Daniel; Ayanbisi Oluwasegun; Hassana O Jonathan; Taiwo O Samson; Ngozi Adeleye; Orosun Muyiwa Michael; A Omeje Uchechukwu; A Akinwumi Oluwasayo; Akinwumi Akinpelu; Akinyemi M L; Olagoke Oladokun

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08470

Sustainable nano-sodium silicate and silver nitrate impregnated locally made ceramic filters for point-of-use water treatments in sub-Sahara African households

Heliyon. 2021 Nov 24;7(12):e08470. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08470. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Authors

Omeje Maxwell¹, Orere Faith Oghenerukevwe¹, O Adewoyin Olusegun¹, Emmanuel Sunday Joel², Ozieme Arinze Daniel³, Ayanbisi Oluwasegun¹, Hassana O Jonathan³, Taiwo O Samson⁴, Ngozi Adeleye⁵, Orosun Muyiwa Michael⁶, A Omeje Uchechukwu⁷, A Akinwumi Oluwasayo¹, Akinwumi Akinpelu¹, Akinyemi M L¹, Olagoke Oladokun⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, College of Science and Technology, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.
² Department of Earth Sciences, Anchor University, Lagos, Nigeria.
³ Department of Chemistry, College of Science and Technology, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.
⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science and Technology, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.
⁵ Department of Economics and Development Studies, College of Business and Social Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.
⁶ Physics Department, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
⁷ Department of Public Health, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria.
⁸ Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The poor access to water quality for Nigerians has pushed for the designing of new trend silver nitrate impregnated locally made Point-Of-Use (POU) ceramic filters to enhance water purification efficiency for household use. This study utilized silver nitrate-molded ceramic filters prepared with Kaolin from Owode, silt soil, sodium silicate, sawdust, and distilled water in three varying proportions to ascertain pollution removal efficiencies. Heating was carried out by firing the filters at 900 °C and further preheating at 400 °C after dipping in silver nitrate solution. Silver nanoparticle and dissociated particle discharge from filter pot painted with 0.03 mg/g casein-covered nAg or AgNO₃ were estimated as an element of pH (5-9), ionic strength (1-50mM), and cation species (Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+). Silver delivery was constrained by disintegration as Ag+ and resulting cation exchange measures, paying little heed to silver structure applied. Water analysis for both heavy metals (Pb and Cd) and microbial load (E. coli) evaluated, corroborate the maximum removal efficiency. It was observed that kaolin-sawdust with the Silver nitrate filters showed a constant and effective removal of both heavy metals and disinfection of microbial loads. The minimum flow rates observed were 4.97 mL/min for batch filter used for Iju River water sample one (AF1) and 4.98 mL/min for batch filter used for Iju River water sample two (AF2) having porosity 49.05% and 50.00%, whereas the 5 mL/min higher flow rate was used for batch filter from borehole water sample one (BF1) and batch filter used for well water sample two (CF2) with porosity of 50.00%. Significantly, the results obtained show that the filters are suitable for point-of-use application in both the urban and rural areas of developing countries such as Nigeria.

Keywords: Clay- Kaolin; Household; Nano filters; Point-of-use ceramic filter; Sawdust; Water pollution.