Photocatalytic bactericidal activity of silver-sensitized titanium dioxide on Micrococcus lylae

ABSTRACT Under UV irradiation, titanium dioxide (TiO2) exhibits a strong bactericidal activity through the generation of hydroxyl radicals (•OH). Silver (Ag) sensitization is an effective way to enhance photocatalytic activity of TiO2. In the present study, Micrococcus lylae was used as a model bacterium to compare the bactericidal activity of Agsensitized TiO2 (in two different Ag/TiO2 molar ratios) and pure TiO2 (P25). When the concentration of photocatalysts was fixed on 0.2 mg/ml with 300 rpm stirring, no obvious difference observed among the three photocatalysts. However, the Ag-sensitized photocatalysts with higher Ag/TiO2 ratio showed better bactericidal efficiency when their concentration decreased (0.1 mg/ml) or the stirring speed increased (380 rpm). The results indicated that optimizing the phosico-chemical conditions of reaction promoted the efficiency of photocatalyst. Moreover, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to observe the sub-cellular structural changes of M. lylae during photocatalytic oxidation (PCO). According to the TEM images, the disruption of cell wall occurred at a relatively long time after the cell death. The cause of cell death was the destruction of plasma membrane induced by membrane permeable •OH. These results supported that both modification on photocatalyst properties and optimization on reaction conditions enhanced the bactericidal efficiency of PCO

Photocatalytic bactericidal activity of silver-sensitized titanium dioxide on

Micrococcus lylae

H.Y Yip1,2, Jimmy C.M Yu2, S.C Chan3, L.Z Zhang2 and P.K Wong1

1 Biology Department and 2Chemistry Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China

3 EnvironmentalCare Limited, Tam Kon Shan Road, North Tsing Yi, Hong Kong SAR, China

E-mail: pkowng@cuhk.edu.hk (P.K Wong)

ABSTRACT

Under UV irradiation, titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) exhibits a strong bactericidal activity through the generation of hydroxyl radicals (•OH) Silver (Ag) sensitization is an effective way to enhance photocatalytic activity of TiO2

In the present study, Micrococcus lylae was used as a model bacterium to compare the bactericidal activity of

Ag-sensitized TiO 2 (in two different Ag/TiO 2 molar ratios) and pure TiO 2 (P25) When the concentration of photocatalysts was fixed on 0.2 mg/ml with 300 rpm stirring, no obvious difference observed among the three photocatalysts However, the Ag-sensitized photocatalysts with higher Ag/TiO2 ratio showed better bactericidal efficiency when their concentration decreased (0.1 mg/ml) or the stirring speed increased (380 rpm) The results indicated that optimizing the phosico-chemical conditions of reaction promoted the efficiency of photocatalyst

Moreover, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to observe the sub-cellular structural changes of M lylae during photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) According to the TEM images, the disruption of cell wall occurred at

a relatively long time after the cell death The cause of cell death was the destruction of plasma membrane induced by membrane permeable •OH These results supported that both modification on photocatalyst properties and optimization on reaction conditions enhanced the bactericidal efficiency of PCO

KEYWORDS

Photocatalytic oxidation, Bactericidal activity, Silver sensitized titanium dioxide

INTORDUCTION

Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) has been accepted as a promising technology for the detoxification and disinfection of water and wastewater In the presence of water and oxygen molecules, photocatalyst, such as titanium dioxide (TiO2) generates reactive hydroxyl radicals (•OH) through a series of charge carriers (electron-hole pairs) mediated reactions when irradiated with near UV (λ <

385 nm) Hydroxyl radical is a powerful oxidizing species It is highly toxic towards microorganisms and very reactive in the oxidation of toxic chemicals such as phenol and

polychlorinated biphenyls (Huang and Hong, 2000; Zhang et al 2001; Dunlop et al., 2002; Wolfrum et al., 2002)

Photocatalytic inactivation of bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas

aeruginosa, and strains of Streptococci), bacterial spores (B subtilis spores and Clostridium

have been investigated (Saito et al., 1992; Watts et al., 1995; Butterfield et al., 1997; Lee et al., 1997; Vidal et al., 1999; Amézaga-Madrid et al., 2002; Dunlop et al., 2002; Wolfrum et al., 2002;

Yu et al., 2002) In these inactivation studies, UV (300 – 400 nm) or solar light was used as energy

source for the photocatalytic disinfection processes The mechanism of bactericidal activity of PCO

was first proposed by Matsunaga et al (1988) They believed that the killing of bacteria by PCO

was related to the amount of oxidized coenzyme A The increase in dimeric form of coenzyme A

was the root cause of decreases in metabolic activities Later, Saito et al (1992) reported that

destruction of cell membrane led to the leakage of potassium ions, protein and genetic materials that

paralleled cell death In general, the different sensitivity of microorganisms to PCO was due to their structural differences, particularly in the thickness and complexity of cell wall

Silver ion (Ag+) is a bactericidal agent (Pedahzur et al., 1995) The binding of Ag+ and respiratory enzymes initiates changes in permeability of plasma membranes of bacteria and results

in changes in cell body (Semikina and Skularhev, 1990) Coating (Absorbing or other words) Ag+

on TiO2 surface may result in a highly effective disinfectant Firstly, TiO2 acts as a substrate for supporting (Fixing) Ag+ The gradually release of Ag+ from the surface can kill bacteria directly Besides, during PCO, the recombination of electron-hole pairs on TiO2 surface can be retarded as

Ag+ which acts as an electron acceptor Therefore, the time for •OH generation can be extended and the effectiveness in killing bacteria increased However, in the present study, TiO2 was sensitized with metallic form of Ag because Ag+ is easily released from the photocatalyst surface and lowers the reusability of sensitized photocatalyst As Ag is a very good conductor, sensitization

of it on TiO2 surface can promote the transfer of electrons from the hole Better charge separation results in less recombination and therefore, improving the photocatalytic activity Reusable photocatalyst can minimized the cost in practical applications and environmental friendly bactericidal method is of strong current interest

In this study, the bactericidal activities of Ag sensitized TiO2 with different Ag/TiO2 molar ratios and pure TiO2 under near-UV irradiation were compared The effects of photocatalyst concentrations and stirring speeds were also investigated Lastly, structural changes in bacteria during PCO were observed by transmission electron microscopy

METHODS AND MATERIALS

Preparation of photocatalysts

TiO2 P25 was purchased from Degussa Corporation (Frankfurt, Germany) and used as a standard photocatalyst for comparison with Ag sensitized TiO2 Ag sensitized TiO2 was prepared by suspending 1.0 g TiO2 P25 in 0.1% P123 (triblock copolymer) ethanol solution with addition of 0.1

M silver ammonia complex ions afterwards After stirring under ambient light for 1 h, the resulting

Ag sensitized TiO2 was recovered by centrifugation and washed by deionized water and ethanol The Ag sensitized TiO2 in two different Ag/TiO2 molar ratio, namely Ag1 (5.07 x 10-4) and Ag2 (1.17 x 10-3), were prepared

Preparation of bacterial culture

Micrococcus lylae, a Gram positive bacterium that was isolated in our laboratory, was used as a

model bacterium in the experiment It was incubated in 10% Trypticase soy broth (TSB) at 30°C and agitated at 200 rpm for 24 h The culture was washed with 0.9% saline by centrifugation at 21,000×g for 5 min at 25°C and the pellet was resuspended in saline The cell suspension was adjusted in centrifuged tube to the required cell concentration (3 x 107 cfu ml-1)

Photocatalytic reaction

Bactericidal effects of the three powdered photocatalysts, including P25, Ag1 and Ag2, were tested separately The photocatalyst was added to 0.9% saline in a conical flask and homogenized by sonication The suspension was then sterilized by autoclaving at 121°C for 20 min, allowed to cool, and mixed with the prepared cell suspension The final photocatalyst concentration was adjusted to 0.1–0.2 mgml-1 and the final bacterial cell concentration was 3x106 cfu ml-1 The photocatalytic reaction was started by irradiating the mixture with near UV light (maximum emission at 365 nm) and stopped by switching off the light Each set of experiment was performed in triplicate The light source used was 15W UV lamp (UV intensity: 2.6 Wm-2) mounted closely on one side of the flask The reaction mixture was stirred with a magnetic stirrer to prevent settling of the photocatalyst A bacterial suspension without photocatalyst was irradiated as a control and the

reaction mixture with no UV irradiation was used as a dark control Before and during the light irradiation, an aliquot of the reaction mixture was immediately diluted with 0.9% saline and plated

on TSB agar The colonies were counted after incubation at 37°C for 48 h The survival of bacterial population during PCO was calculated by the equation:

Survival (%) = (PT / PI) x 100%

where PI represented the initial population and PT represented the population after irradiation time (T)

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

Aliquots of reaction suspension were sampled for TEM study after 0, 30, 60 and 120 min of photocatalytic reaction Samples which consisted of TiO2 and M lylae were centrifuged and pre-fixed in 3% glutaraldehyde for 2 h, washed two times with 0.1 M phosphate buffer (PBS) (pH 7.2) and post-fixed for 2 h in 1% osmium tetraoxide After washing with PBS, the specimens were dehydrated in a graded series of ethanol and embedded in Spurr for polymerization Ultra-thin sections (70 nm) were made with an ultra-microtome using a diamond knife, stained with 2.5% uranyl acetate and 2% lead citrate and examined by transmission electron microscopy (JEM-1200EXII, JOEL Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) at 100 kV accelerating voltage

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Bactericidal effect of Ag-sensitized photocatalyst

In order to investigate the bactericidal effect of photocatalyst itself towards M lylae, a dark control

experiment was performed Results showed that, bacterial survival was not affected by mixing with the three photocatalysts up to 60 min (Fig 1) No Ag+ released from Ag1 and Ag2 might take part

in killing bacteria It is also possible that the amount of Ag+ released is well below the threshold level for triggering a bactericidal response under the present coating method It has been confirmed

by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric measurement that the concentration

of Ag+ in the working solutions with Ag1 or Ag2 powder after 1 h of stirring in darkness was well below the detection limit (3 µg l-1) The antibacterial effect of Ag+ is highly dependent on the ionization efficiency of Ag from TiO2 surface and diffusion efficiency to the bacterial cell

membrane (Keleher et al., 2002)

Irradiation Time (min)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

P25 Dark Control Ag1 Dark Control Ag2 Dark Control

Figure 1 Bactericidal effect of the three photocatalysts (0.2 mg ml-1 each) on M lylae (3 x 106 cfu

ml-1) survival over time Test conducted in darkness with 300 rpm magnetic stirring Each data point and error bar represents the mean and standard deviation of independent triplicates

Effect of Ag content in photocatalysts

Bactericidal activities of the three photocatalysts were much more obvious under UV irradiation (Fig 2) After 60 min of irradiation, about 80% of bacterial cells were killed The decrease in

bacterial population could only be due to the addition of photocatalysts since M lylae was found to

be UV resistant in the UV light control experiment There was a difference of at least 10% in bactericidal activity between Ag2 and the other two photocatalysts after 60 min of UV irradiation This result showed that Ag sensitization on TiO2 could surely promote bactericidal activity but the Ag/TiO2 molar ratio should be as high as that in the Ag2 sample No difference in bactericidal activity was found between Ag1 and P25

Irradiation Time (min)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

P25 0.1 mg/ml Ag1 0.1 mg/ml Ag2 0.1 mg/ml

UV light control

Figure 2 Bactericidal effect of the three photocatalysts (0.1 mg ml-1 each) on M lylae (3 x 106 cfu

ml-1) survival over time Test conducted in darkness with 300 rpm magnetic stirring Each data point and error bar represents the mean and standard deviation of independent triplicates

Effect of photocatalyst concentration

After increasing the photocatalyst concentration from 0.1 mg ml-1 to 0.2 mg ml-1, there was no obvious difference in bactericidal activity among the three photocatalysts (Fig 3) Ag sensitized TiO2 did not show higher efficiency than pure TiO2 in higher concentration Ag2 showed better performance in lower concentration (0.1 mgml-1), but it just showed similar bactericidal activity to Ag1 and pure TiO2 in 0.2 mg/ml

Irradiation Time (min)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

P25 0.2 mg/ml Ag1 0.2 mg/ml Ag2 0.2 mg/ml

UV light control

Figure 3 Bactericidal effect of the three photocatalysts (0.2 mg ml-1 each) on M lylae (3 x 106 cfu

ml-1) survival over time Test conducted in darkness with 300 rpm magnetic stirring Each data point and error bar represents the mean and standard deviation of independent triplicates

Increasing the concentration of photocatalysts did not increase the bactericidal activity It might be because Ag2 at 0.1 mg ml-1 already provided the optimal concentration for the reaction and photocatalyst concentration was not the limiting factor for Ag1 and pure TiO2 Obviously, an advantage of using Ag2 is that smaller amount (0.1 m gml-1) of it is enough to provide the same bactericidal activity as in 0.2 mg ml-1 It is important in cost saving in real application Some previous studies showed that high concentration of photocatalyst was usually not favorable for PCO

processes San et al (2001) performed a kinetic study on PCO of organic compound and found that

at high TiO2 concentration, aggregated particles reduced the interfacial area between reaction solution and the photocatalyst, and the number of active sites on TiO2 surface that available for oxidation decreased Moreover, addition of a high dose of TiO2 increased the opacity and decreased light penetration by scattering of photons, which in turn lowered the energy provided for the

initiation of PCO reactions (Chen et al., 2001) Besides these organic degradation studies, the negative effect of high dose photocatalyst was also observed in bactericidal studies, Saito et al

(1992) reported that there was only a 2.5 times increase in bacterial population when the concentration of TiO2 was increased from 1 mgml-1 to 10 mgml-1 In a previous E coli disinfection

study, it was found that TiO2 concentration greater than 1mgml-1 actually decreased the killing

efficiency (Maness et al., 1999) It might be due to the shading effect which caused light in TiO2

cell suspension to become limiting Usually, this limitation can be solved by increasing the UV intensity since higher UV intensity would provide more energy for •OH generation on the photocatalyst surface Thus, increasing the UV intensity directly should enhance the oxidation efficiency of photocatalyst Because of the limitation on adding UV lamp in the reactor of present study, the enhancement on bactericidal activity by UV intensity could not be tested Under the condition of fixed UV intensity, adjustment of photocatalyst concentration is a critical step for maximizing the reaction efficiency but minimizing the shading effect

Effect of stirring speed

In addition to the effect of photocatalyst concentrations, the effect of stirring speed in bactericidal efficiency was investigated (Fig 4) It was found that increasing the stirring speed from 300 to 380 rpm improved bactericidal activity of Ag2, but it did not affect Ag1 and pure TiO2 as photocatalyst

Irradiation Time (min)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

P25 increased stirring Ag1 increased stirring Ag2 increased stirring

UV light control

Figure 4 Bactericidal effect of the three photocatalysts (0.2 mg ml-1 each) on M lylae (3 x 106 cfu

ml-1) survival over time Test conducted under UV irradiation with 380 rpm magnetic stirring Each data point and error bar represents the mean and standard deviation of independent triplicates

Stirring is important for preventing the catalyst-cell slurry from settling In addition, it promotes bactericidal action by increasing contact between photocatalyst particles and bacterial cells As photocatalytic reactions can occur only on the surface of photocatalyst, increasing collision between

photocatalyst and target compound advances the oxidation (San et al., 2001) Increasing the stirring

speed improved the bactericidal efficiency of Ag2 However, mixing was not the limiting factor for the bactericidal action of Ag1 and pure TiO2 since increasing the stirring speed did not seem to enhance the bactericidal activity of the two photocatalysts

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

As Ag2 showed better performance among the three photocatalysts, it was used for TEM study

under near-UV irradiation Fig 5 shows the TEM images of M lylae after PCO After 30 min of

irradiation, morphological changes were observed in some cells (Fig 5b) Some electron

translucent portions appeared but destruction of cell wall was not observed After 60 min, the

hollow regions were extended and the morphological changes appeared in most of the cells (Fig 5c) After 120 min, many cells were disrupted (Fig 5d)

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Figure 5 TEM images of M lylae mixed with 0.2 mg ml-1 of Ag2 before (0 min, (a)) and after 30

min (b), 60 min (c) and 120 min (d) of UV irradiation

The TEM images and experimental results demonstrated that the cell death was not due to disruption of cell wall The survival ratio of bacterial population began to decrease when at the onset of irradiation A previous study found that the photocatalyst was unable to attack cell wall as

it was protected by the outer peptidoglycan layer in the earlier stage of reaction (Saito et al., 1992)

Instead, the plasma membrane was firstly attacked by reactive oxygen species (e.g superoxide radicals) which were generated from water molecules around the photocatalyst and were able to penetrate the outer layer of bacteria These reactive species oxidized the membrane and broke the main permeability barrier of bacteria The slow leakage of intracellular materials, including RNA, protein and minerals, explained the loss of cell viability at the early stage of PCO and the appearance of electron-translucent region after 30 min of irradiation Cell wall destruction was believed to be a secondary phenomenon after the loss of cell viability

CONCLUSION

Based on the experimental results, disinfection of water by PCO is feasible The effectiveness of bactericidal action can be improved by optimization of physico-chemical conditions Ag2 was more sensitive than Ag1 and TiO2 in response to the change in photocatalyst concentration and stirring

speed According to the TEM images, the plasma membrane of M lylae was the first target of

reactive oxygen species and it was the main reason of cell death The cell wall destruction was only

a secondary phenomenon after the loss of cell viability

In the application of PCO for disinfection of water, photocatalyst is the major expenditure besides the capital cost in machinery As the photocatalyst is reusable, it should be regenerated Sensitization of metallic Ag on TiO2 surface can enhance the photocatalytic activity and lowers the expenditure on catalyst Moreover, operational cost in electricity can be reduced as the irradiation time is shortened by the use of more effective photocatalyst In order to develop PCO as an effective treatment of bacteria in environmental samples, further studies are required to explore the

possibility of lowering the cost with maximum effectiveness and convenient application such as using sunlight as energy source or immobilizing photocatalysts for easier collection and reuse

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research project was supported by a research grant from the Innovational and Technology Fund (ITF) to Jimmy Yu and P.K Wong, and a Direct Grant from the Research Committee of The Chinese University of Hong Kong to P.K Wong Critical review of this manuscript by Prof CK Wong is greatly appreciated

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