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Antibacterial properties of recoverable CuZnO@Fe3O4@GO composites in water treatment

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Abstract

The growth of bacteria will lead to water quality deterioration and equipment damage. Therefore, it is necessary to control the growth and reproduction of microorganisms in water treatment. A new type of magnetic recoverable CuZnO@Fe3O4@GO composites was prepared by ultrasonic method, and the composites were characterized and analyzed by SEM, TEM, XPS, and other methods. The optimum mass ratio of composites was determined by orthogonal experiment, and the antibacterial properties and mechanism of the composite were investigated by gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli. Finally, the antibacterial properties of the composites in the effluent of the secondary sedimentation tank were researched. It was shown that the optimum mass ratio of the composites was GO:Fe3O4:CuZnO =1:2:3. When the dosage of composites was 180 mg L-1 and the action time was 100 min, the antibacterial rate against S. aureus and E. coli reached more than 99.5%. The composites could destroy the cell structure of two kinds of bacteria, increase the content of active oxygen in bacteria cells, and enhance the leakage rate of protein by more than 9 times in 150 min, thereby causing the death of the bacteria. And the antibacterial rate of the composites in effluent of the secondary sedimentation tank could reach 99%, and the magnetic recovery rate could reach more than 98%. After 5 cycles of use, the antibacterial rate could still exceed 90%.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank teachers Fang Liu, Chunshuang Liu, and Yongqiang Wang for their support and help; thanks to the contributions of coauthors and the support of Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2017MEM013) for this research.

Funding

Thanks to the support of Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2017MEM013) for this research.

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  1. Guofei Jiang and Junzhi Sun are co-first authors and they have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Pollution Control, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao, 266580, China

    Junzhi Sun, Guofei Jiang, Benjie Zhu, Xueyao Wang, Fang Liu, Chunshuang Liu & Yongqiang Wang

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  1. Junzhi Sun
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  2. Guofei Jiang
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  5. Fang Liu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Junzhi Sun, Guofei Jiang, Benjie Zhu, and Xueyao Wang. Fang Liu, Chunshuang Liu, and Yongqiang Wang are in charge of project administration and resources, and professor Fang Liu is the main person in charge. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Junzhi Sun, Guofei Jiang, and Benjie Zhu; all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Fang Liu.

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Sun, J., Jiang, G., Zhu, B. et al. Antibacterial properties of recoverable CuZnO@Fe3O4@GO composites in water treatment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 33355–33370 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12963-1

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