Microcystis aeruginosa Synergistically Facilitate the Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline Hydrochloride and Cr(VI) on PAN/TiO2/Ag Nanofiber Mats

Lei Wang (1) , Changbo Zhang (2) , Rong Cheng (3) , Jafar Ali (1, 4) , Zhenbo Wang (5, 6) , Gilles Mailhot (7) , Gang Pan (1, 8)

1 State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences
2 Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin
3 School of Environment and Natural Resources, Renmin University of China
4 UCAS - University of Chinese Academy of Sciences [Beijing]
5 Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
6 Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
7 ICCF - Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand
8 Center of Integrated Water-Energy-Food Studies (iWEF), School of Animal, Rural, and Environmental Sciences

Cyanobacterial blooms can cause serious damage to aquatic ecosystems. However, we have demonstrated that typical algae-blooming species Microcystis aeruginosa (M. aeruginosa) combined with photocatalysts could synergistically facilitate the photodecontamination of tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) and Cr(VI). In this study, for the first time, harmful algae were successfully converted into photoreactive bionano hybrid materials by immobilizing M. aeruginosa cells onto polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-TiO2/Ag hybrid nanofibers, and their photocatalytic activity was evaluated. The addition of M. aeruginosa significantly improved the photodecontamination, and the reaction rate constant (k) values of TC and Cr(VI) degradation by M. aeruginosa-PAN/TiO2/Ag nanofiber mats were 2.4 and 1.5-fold higher than that of bare PAN/TiO2/Ag nanofiber. Photoreaction caused damage to algae cells, but no microcystin was found that had been photodegraded simultaneously. The effects of various active species were also investigated, and the photodegradation mechanism was proposed. Recycling tests revealed that this flexible M. aeruginosa-PAN/TiO2/Ag hybrid mat had potential application in the removal of mixed organic and inorganic pollutants with high efficiency and without secondary pollutants. Thus, harmful algae blooms could serve as an efficient materials to remove toxic pollutants in a sustainable way under visible light irradiation.

Mots clés: Microcystis aeruginosa; PAN nanofiber; TiO2 photocatalytic; Ag nanoparticles; tetracycline; Cr(VI)

Domaines: Chimie

Lei Wang, Changbo Zhang, Rong Cheng, Jafar Ali, Zhenbo Wang, et al.. Microcystis aeruginosa Synergistically Facilitate the Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline Hydrochloride and Cr(VI) on PAN/TiO2/Ag Nanofiber Mats. Catalysts, 2018, 8 (12), pp.628. ⟨10.3390/catal8120628⟩. ⟨hal-02048763⟩