Kinetics and equilibrium adsorption of nano-TiO2 particles on synthetic biofilm

Understanding the environmental behavior of nanoparticles includes their interaction with biofilms, which is a covering on the surface of a living or nonliving substrate composed of microorganisms. This study focuses on nano-TiO2 sorption mechanism by synthetic biofilm that was prepared as superporous spherical beads from agarose, using batch stirred flasks kept at room temperature. The pH plays an important part in these phenomena, by its influence on the nanoparticles and biofilm chemistry, where the biofilm nanoTiO2 uptake at neutral pH was enhanced over acidic conditions. Hydroxylation of TiO2 nanoparticles, dependent on pH and the salinity of the solution, influences the stability of colloids, the sorption kinetics via the nature of limiting phases: diffusion through the boundary layer or intrabiofilm mass transfer and the sorption mechanism. The sorption follows pseudo first-order adsorption kinetics with estimated average rate constants of 2.2 (min− 1). Equilibrium isotherms were evaluated using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms to obtain the maximum uptake at different solution pH and the free energy of the adsorption. The adsorption is apparently irreversible because biofilm limits diffusion of particles out of the pores and the complexation active binding sites on the surface hydrated biofilm to the hydrophilic TiO2 nanoparticles.