Impact of chlorination on silver elution from ceramic water filters

Applying silver nanoparticles (nAg) or silver nitrate (AgNO₃) to ceramic water filters improves microbiological efficacy, reduces biofilm formation, and protects stored water from recontamination. A challenge in ceramic filter production is adding sufficient silver to achieve these goals without exceeding the maximum recommended silver concentration in drinking water. Silver release is affected by silver type, application method, and influent water chemistry. Despite a lack of data, there is an assumption that chlorinated water should not be used as influent water because it may increase silver elution. Thus, the objective of this work was to systematically evaluate the impact of chlorinated water (0-4 mg/L free chlorine residual, FCR) on silver release from ceramic filter disks painted with casein-coated nAg, painted with AgNO₃, or containing fired-in nAg over a range of ionic strength (IS = 0-10 mM as NaNO₃) in the presence or absence of natural organic matter (NOM). Influent deionized water containing chlorine increased silver release 2-5-fold compared to controls. However, this effect of chlorine was mitigated at higher IS (≥1 mM) or in the presence of NOM (3 mg C/L). For filter disks painted with nAg or AgNO₃, silver release increased with increasing IS (with or without chlorine), and effluent concentrations remained above the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline of 0.1 mg/L even after 30 h (80 pore volumes, PVs) of flow with a background solution of 10 mM NaNO₃. Silver speciation (nAg vs. Ag⁺) was monitored in effluent samples from painted or fired-in nAg filter disks. Results indicated that in general, greater than 90% of the eluted silver was due to Ag⁺ dissolution rather than nAg release. Additionally, a filter disk prepared with fired-in nAg exhibited a lower % released in the nanoparticle form (nAg = 5% of total Ag in effluent) compared to painted on nAg (nAg = 14% of total Ag in effluent). The findings of this study suggest that chlorinated influent water has minimal impact on silver elution from ceramic filters under simulated natural water conditions, and thus, the recommendation to avoid the use of chlorinated water with ceramic filters is not necessary under most conditions.