Antimicrobial filtration with electrospun poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofibers containing benzyl triethylammonium chloride: Immersion, leaching, toxicity, and filtration tests.

Antimicrobial electrospun poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofibers were synthesized by impregnating benzyl triethylammonium chloride (BTEAC) as an antimicrobial agent into PVA nanofibers. The BTEAC-PVA nanofibers were heat-methanol treated during the preparation for various tests. The BTEAC-PVA nanofibers became more hydrophilic than the PVA nanofibers due to incorporation of BTEAC. Through heat-methanol treatment, thermal property, crystallinity, and water stability of BTEAC-PVA nanofibers were improved considerably. The immersion test shows that heat-methanol treatment has an advantage over heat treatment to maintain BTEAC content in BTEAC-PVA nanofibers. The acute toxicity test demonstrates that the 24-h EC50 and 48-h EC50 values (EC50 = median effective concentration) of BTEAC to Daphnia magna were 113 and 90 mg/L, respectively. The leaching test indicates that the BTEAC concentration leached from BTEAC-PVA nanofibers was far below the concentration affecting the immobilization of D. magna. For antimicrobial filtration tests, the BTEAC-PVA nanofibers were deposited onto glass fiber filter. The antimicrobial filtration test was conducted against bacteria (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus) and bacteriophages (MS2, PhiX174), demonstrating that the BTEAC-PVA nanofibers could enhance the removal of E. coli and S. aureus considerably but not the removal of MS2 and PhiX174 under dynamic flow conditions.