3.7. Treatment of the industrial wastewater
Thin film (8 4 4) was used in the treatment of industrial wastewater. This sample was chosen for this part of the work
because it had the best results in terms of bactericidal efficiency in the agar diffusion tests as well as the incorporation of the highest amount of silver according to the characterization results
discussed above. Fig. 7 shows the percentage of removal of coliforms as a function of time for the first use (mean value of two measurements) and in the reuse (value of a single measurement). After 5 min, a reduction of approximately 29% of coliforms was observed in the initial sample (untreated industrial wastewater); the reduction increase with the time of treatment and after 360 min, approximately 90% of coliforms were removed in the first use. In addition, when the films were reused, the removal of coliform bacteria was greater than that in the first use (53.5% after 5 min and 93% after 360 min of treatment) because the amount of leached silver is higher than that of the first use (Table 2).