The Roles of Different Fractions in Freshwater Biofilms in the Photodegradation of Methyl Orange and Bisphenol A in Aqueous Solutions

Haojie Yin, Lingling Wang, Guangshu Zeng, Longfei Wang () and Yi Li ()
Additional contact information
Haojie Yin: Institute of Microbiology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Applied Microbiology Southern China, Guangzhou 510070, China
Lingling Wang: Institute of Microbiology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Applied Microbiology Southern China, Guangzhou 510070, China
Guangshu Zeng: Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Longfei Wang: Institute of Microbiology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Applied Microbiology Southern China, Guangzhou 510070, China
Yi Li: Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-15

Abstract: Freshwater biofilms play an important role in the migration and transformation of organic pollutants, especially under illumination conditions. Nonetheless, the roles of variable fractions in freshwater biofilms, e.g., extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), microbial cells and original biofilms, in promoting the photodegradation of trace organic pollutants remain largely unclear. In this study, two contaminants, i.e., methyl orange (MO) and bisphenol A (BPA), were selected, and the roles of different fractions in freshwater biofilms in their photodegradation performances were investigated. After dosing 696 mg/L SS biofilm harvested from an effluent-receiving river, the direct photodegradation rate of MO and BPA was increased 8.7 times and 5.6 times, respectively. River biofilm EPS contained more aromatic fractions, chromogenic groups and conjugated structures than biofilm harvested from a less eutrophic pond, which might be responsible for the enhanced photodegradation process. The quenching experiments suggested that when EPS fractions derived from river biofilm were dosed, 3 EPS* was the major reactive oxygen species during the photodegradation of MO and BPA. Meanwhile, for EPS derived from the pond biofilm, ·OH/ 1 O 2 was predominantly responsible for the enhanced photodegradation. Batch experimental results suggested that the cells and EPS in river biofilms could collaboratively interact with each other to enhance the preservation of reactive species and protection of microbes, thus facilitating the photoactivity of biofilms. Our results might suggest that biofilms generated from eutrophic waterbodies, such as effluent-receiving rivers, could play a more important role in the photodegradation processes of contaminants.

Keywords: methyl orange; bisphenol A; photodegradation; freshwater biofilm; extracellular polymeric substances; reactive oxygen species (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/12995/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/12995/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:12995-:d:938618

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().