Simultaneous removal and conversion of silver ions from wastewater into antibacterial material through selective chemical precipitation

High doses of silver compounds in water have been found to be extremely toxic to the cells of plants and animals. Removal then reutilization of silver ions as antibacterial materials in one step from wastewater is an urgent but challenging issue from the views of environment and economy. In this research, we reported a planar benzothiazole Schiff base derivative BTS1 that can selectively precipitate silver ions from wastewater over other metal ions through chemical precipitation. The precipitation reaction showed promising activity in the pH range of 6 to11, realizing a high silver ions precipitation ratio of 95.4%, and low LOD of 0.059 mg/L. More importantly, the filtrated precipitate BTS1-Ag can be directly used as an antibacterial material. The test papers coated with BTS1-Ag exhibited antibacterial activity against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. This research provides a promising strategy for simultaneous removal and conversion of silver ions from wastewater into functional materials.