Abstract
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•Magnetic thiourea formaldehyde polymers loaded with Ag(I) and Au(III) ions were prepared.•MTUF-Ag and MTUF-Au were tested as water disinfectants.•Lower minimum inhibitory concentration and short disinfection contact time was recorded for MTUF-Ag.•Ag and Au loaded MTUF successfully deactivated pathogenic microorganisms in water and wastewater samples.
Magnetic disinfectants were achieved through the polymerization of thiourea and formaldahyde in the presence of magnetite nano particles (MTUF), the as-prepared MTUF was loaded with Ag(I) or Au(III). The obtained disinfectants (MTUF-Ag and MTUF-Au) were test for some selected pathogenic strains deactivation. The toxicity of MTUF before and after Ag(I) or Au(II) loading was estimated. The antimicrobial activity tests of MTUF-Ag and MTUF-Au were carried out against Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as examples of Gram negative bacteria; Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, and Bacillus subtilis as examples of Gram positive bacteria; Candida albicans as representative for fungi. The results showed that the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of MTF-Ag against Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans were 1.5, 2.0, 1.5, 1.0 and 2.5 mg mL−1, respectively after 40 min of contact time. While MTUF-Au showed higher MIC concentrations: 6.0, 4.0, 4.0, 4.0 and 6 mg mL−1 for the mentioned strains, respectively. The studied MTUF-Ag and MTUF-Au were successfully tested for deactivation of the studied pathogenic microorganism’s water and wastewater samples. It can be concluded that, MTUF-Ag and MTUF-Au are good candidates for water disinfection.