Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 8-25-2026

Abstract

Organic dyes, such as methylene blue (MB), are widely used in the textile and dyestuff industries, which can be released into the environment as major dye pollutants in wastewater, thereby causing serious environmental hazards. The present research aimed to synthesize effective CuO-doped multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and incorporated into a renewable polycaprolactone (PCL) polymer at varied dosages (i.e., 3, 7, and 10 wt%) to fabricate photocatalytic nanomembranes for toxic dye sequestration. XRD, SEM and FTIR analysis were employed to characterize the structure, morphology and composition of prepared nanoparticles and PCL nanomembranes. The mechanical properties and antibacterial performance of prepared nanomembranes were investigated using tensile strength and colony forming-unit assay, respectively. Moreover, visible light is a benign source to assess the photocatalytic capacity of prepared nanomembranes though degradation of MB dye, as an organic model dye. The findings showed that PCL/CuO-MWCNTs 7% (PCL2) achieved the optimal mechanical properties, exhibiting a tensile strength of 23.73 MPa compared to neat PCL (11.63 MPa), as supported by SEM observations. However, PCL/CuO-MWCNTs 10% (PCL3) nanomembrane showed the best photocatalytic performance for MB degradation, reaching a degradation efficiency of 78%. Additionally, PCL3 nanomembrane exhibited significant antibacterial activity, effectively suppressing the growth of S. aureus and E. coli bacteria by approximately 45% and 21.5%, respectively. The obtained results highlight the potential of these nanomembranes for purifying wastewater from toxic dyes and microbial pollutants.

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