Kinetic study and performance comparison of TiO2-mediated visible-light-responsive photocatalysts for the inactivation of Aspergillus niger

Shang-Ming Huang; Chih-Huang Weng; Jing-Hua Tzeng; Ya-Zhen Huang; Jin Anotai; Li-Ting Yen; Che-Jui Chang; Yao-Tung Lin

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.329

Kinetic study and performance comparison of TiO₂-mediated visible-light-responsive photocatalysts for the inactivation of Aspergillus niger

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Nov 20:692:975-983. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.329. Epub 2019 Jul 21.

Authors

Shang-Ming Huang¹, Chih-Huang Weng², Jing-Hua Tzeng³, Ya-Zhen Huang⁴, Jin Anotai⁵, Li-Ting Yen⁴, Che-Jui Chang⁴, Yao-Tung Lin⁶

Affiliations

¹ Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan; Department of Soil and Environmental Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan.
² Department of Civil and Ecological Engineering, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung 84008, Taiwan.
³ Department of Soil and Environmental Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
⁴ Department of Soil and Environmental Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Environmental Engineering, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Tungkru, Bangkok, Thailand.
⁶ Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan; Department of Soil and Environmental Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan. Electronic address: yaotung@nchu.edu.tw.

PMID: 31540001
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.329

Abstract

Fungi are highly survived with exceptional resistance to environmental stress. Conventional fungicides are quite efficient, but the increase in use raises severe environmental problems. In this study, environmentally friendly TiO₂-mediated visible-light-responsive photocatalysts, namely N-TiO₂, N-T-TiO_2, C-TiO₂, and Pd-C-TiO₂, were used to compare the performance of disinfecting a mold fungi Aspergillus niger. Key parameters, including photocatalyst dosage, the initial fungal concentration, and visible-light intensity, affecting the disinfecting process, was investigated. A new developed Light-responsive Modified Hom's (LMH) kinetic model incorporating visible-light intensity and photocatalyst light-absorption coefficient was firstly used to predict such photocatalytic process in fungal inactivation. Among the photocatalysts, Pd-C-TiO₂ showed the highest inactivation performance against fungi, followed by C-TiO₂, N-T-TiO_2, and N-TiO₂. In general, inactivation increased with increasing photocatalyst dosage and light intensity while decreased with increasing initial fungal concentration. For kinetic modeling, the LMH model supports the hypothesis that photocatalyst performance toward visible-light-driven fungal inactivation primarily depends on the light-absorption capacity of the photocatalyst. In conclusion, mold fungi Aspergillus niger are effectively disinfected by TiO₂-mediated visible-light-responsive photocatalysts, and such fungal inactivation process could be predicted by LMH kinetic model.

Keywords: Aspergillus niger; Inactivation; Light-responsive Modified Hom's model; TiO(2); Visible-light.

MeSH terms

Aspergillus niger
Disinfection / methods*
Kinetics
Light
Photochemical Processes
Titanium / chemistry*

Substances

titanium dioxide
Titanium