Influence of Surfactants on Bacterial Adhesion to Metal Oxide-Coated Surfaces

The objective of this study was to investigate the bacterial adhesion to iron (hydr)oxide-coated sand (IHCS) and aluminum oxide-coated sand (AOCS) in the presence of Tween 20 (nonionic surfactant) and lipopeptide biosurfactant (anionic surfactant) through column experiments. Results show that in the presence of Tween 20, bacterial adhesion to the coated sands was slightly decreased compared to the condition of deionized water; the mass recovery (Mr) increased from 0.491 to 0.550 in IHCS and from 0.279 to 0.380 in AOCS. The bacterial adhesion to the coated sands was greatly reduced in lipopeptide biosurfactant; Mr increased to 0.980 in IHCS and to 0.797 in AOCS. Results indicate that the impact of lipopeptide biosurfactant on bacterial adhesion to metal oxide-coated sands was significantly greater than that of Tween 20. Our results differed from those of the previous report, showing that Tween 20 was the most effective while the biosurfactant was the least effective in the reduction of bacterial adhesion to porous media. This discrepancy could be ascribed to the different surface charges of porous media used in the experiments. This study indicates that lipopeptide biosurfactant can play an important role in enhancing the bacterial transport in geochemically heterogeneous porous media. KCI Citation Count: 0