Fabrication of preliminary multifunctional evaluation of a silver-graphene oxide composite membrane for antimicrobial and water contaminant removal application

Multifunctional composite materials capable of exhibiting antimicrobial and contaminant-removal properties are of interest for environmental applications. In the present study, a silver-graphene oxide (Ag-GO) composite membrane was fabricated using a PVA-based matrix and evaluated through structural, morphological, surface-chemical, antimicrobial, adsorption, and light-assisted dye-removal studies. X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, FTIR, XPS, BET, dynamic light scattering, zeta-potential, and photoluminescence analyses were used to characterize the fabricated composite. The membrane exhibited measurable antimicrobial activity against both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, with inhibition zones of approximately 2 and 4 mm, respectively, under the investigated disc-diffusion conditions. Batch adsorption experiments showed adsorption capacities of approximately 16 mg g − 1 for Pb 2+ ions, 14.04 mg g − 1 for Cr 2+ ions, and 17.54 mg g − 1 for Co 2+ under the investigated conditions, with corresponding removal efficiencies of approximately 80%, 70.2%, and 87.7%, respectively. The composite also exhibited enhanced removal of the investigated industrial dyes under light irradiation, indicating a combination of adsorption and light-assisted removal processes. These findings demonstrate that the fabricated Ag–GO composite possesses multiple experimentally observable functionalities at laboratory scale. However, the present study does not establish pressure-driven membrane permeability, solute rejection, fouling resistance, long-term durability, regeneration performance, or silver-leaching behavior. Therefore, the material should be regarded as a preliminary multifunctional composite membrane platform, and further studies are required to establish its suitability for practical and continuous water-treatment applications.