ANNOUNCEMENTS
Waterborne illnesses persist despite monitoring efforts. While conventional detections methods have several limitations such as being laborious, timeintensive and a large sample size requirement, sophisticated pathogen detection systems like biosensors and microfluidic chips, enhanced by nanoparticles, can overcome these limitations with potential application in on-site environmental monitoring and remediation. This work focuses on enhancing zinc oxide nanoparticle’s antimicrobial properties through surface functionalization with lysozyme followed by incorporation in a cellulose membrane. The modified chemical oxidation-reduction method synthesized ZnO@LY nanoparticles with an average size of 14-32 nm, reduced aggregation, and a higher positive charge (+31mV) compared to native ZnO NPs. The bacterial growth inhibition assay showed an enhanced 25% antibacterial effect of ZnO@LY NPs at 250 ppm over native ZnO NPs. Lysozyme functionalization improved bacterial surface interactions, stability, and biocompatibility. After ZnO@LY nanoparticle doping of the cellulose membrane using non-solvent phase inversion method, the antibacterial and filtration performance was higher than the control membrane due to lower bacterial load in the filtrate. These functionalized nanoparticles doped membranes have a promising future in biosensors and microfluidic platforms for in-situ microbial detection in wastewater.
Keywords: Zinc oxide nanoparticles, functionalization, wastewater, biosensors, membrane-filters.
