Adding nanoparticles to improve emulsion efficiency and enhance microbial degradation in Pickering emulsions

Interfacial microbial degradation of alkane in Pickering emulsions stabilized by hydrophobic bacterial cells is a new mechanism for microbial degradation of water-insoluble chemicals, where both water-insoluble chemicals in the oil phase and water-soluble nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorus) in the water phase are bio-accessible to living microorganisms anchoring onto the oil-water interfaces. In the present work, super-hydrophobic Mycobacterium sp. (contact angle 168.6 & DEG;) degradation of tetradecane was set up as a model. Addition of fumed SiO2 particles (Aerosil & REG; R974) as a new strategy was developed to enhance tetradecane degradation where the biodegradation rate (based on the accumulated biomass) increased by approximately 80%. The enhanced effect of SiO2 particles on the tetradecane degradation attributed to the synergistic effect of SiO2 particles on the emulsion efficiency of Pickering emulsions stabilized by bacterial cells and then on the enhancement of interfacial microbial degradation in Pickering emulsions.

Automated summary

Interfacial microbial degradation of alkane in Pickering emulsions is a new mechanism where water-insoluble chemicals in the oil phase and water-soluble nutrients in the water phase are accessible to microorganisms anchoring onto the oil-water interfaces. In this study, the degradation of tetradecane by super-hydrophobic Mycobacterium sp. was investigated. The addition of fumed SiO2 particles enhanced the degradation by approximately 80% through improving the emulsion efficiency and interfacial microbial degradation in Pickering emulsions.