Ca2+-Facilitated Adhesion of Bacteria on the Na-Montmorillonite Surface

Yongshuai Sun; Anping Lei

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c07260

Ca²⁺-Facilitated Adhesion of Bacteria on the Na-Montmorillonite Surface

ACS Omega. 2023 Jan 11;8(3):3385-3395. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c07260. eCollection 2023 Jan 24.

Authors

Yongshuai Sun¹, Anping Lei²

Affiliations

¹ College of Water Resources & Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing100083, China.
² China Highway Engineering Consultants Corporation, Beijing100089, China.

Abstract

The adhesion of bacteria on clay surfaces strongly affected their migration and distribution in soil and water. Bacterial adhesion experiments on the Na-montmorillonite (Na-MMT) surface were conducted to determine the role of Na-MMT in the bacterial adhesion process and to prove the validity of the isotherm and kinetic theory for the bacterial surface adhesion in the presence of Ca²⁺ ions. Batch adhesion experiments with bacteria on the Na-MMT surface were carried out with varying time frames, temperatures, bacterial concentrations, and Ca²⁺ ion concentrations. The adhesion capacity of Na-MMT significantly correlated with the Ca²⁺ ion concentration, temperature, time frame, and bacterial concentration when Ca²⁺ ions were present. The adhesion morphology of the bacteria onto the Na-MMT surface, observed through the zeta-potential and atomic force microscopy (AFM), additionally demonstrated that the bacterial adhesion onto the Na-MMT surface was dominated by the nonelectrostatic force.