TY - JOUR
T1 - Electrochemical self-cleaning anodic surfaces for biofouling control during water treatment
AU - Rice, Douglas
AU - Westerhoff, Paul
AU - Perreault, Francois
AU - GARCIA SEGURA, Sergio
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partially funded through the Nano-Enabled Water Treatment Technologies Nanosystems Engineering Research Center by the National Science Foundation ( EEC-1449500 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2018/11
Y1 - 2018/11
N2 - Biofilm formation and growth on submerged surfaces causes numerous operational problems, ranging from hindering diffusion of pollutants to electrode surfaces during electrochemical water treatment to harboring pathogens in indoor plumbing. This work evaluates electrochemical biofilm dispersion kinetics from boron-doped diamond (BDD) surfaces in situ using optical coherence tomography microscopy to track the volume of biofilm (biovolume) on the electrode. After starting with a 75 μm thick biofilm, applying 50 mA cm−2 results in near complete biofilm removal after 60 min, with a pseudo first-order biovolume removal rate of 0.023 min−1; higher applied currents had negligible additional benefits. Thus, it appears plausible to attain biofouling mitigation through electrochemical self-cleaning of BDD electrodes, potentially via the following two-step process: 1) hydroxyl radical production on the electrode surface which oxidizes polysaccharides or other cellular materials that attach bacteria to surface, followed by 2) gas evolution on the electrode surface (beneath the biofilm), which pushes and sloughs off the biofilm. This novel approach to biofouling management can find applications in electrochemical water treatment and other important surfaces (e.g., electrodes, membrane spacers, heat exchange surfaces, interior pipe surfaces, etc.) in water treatment systems where biofilms develop and harbor microbial pathogens.
AB - Biofilm formation and growth on submerged surfaces causes numerous operational problems, ranging from hindering diffusion of pollutants to electrode surfaces during electrochemical water treatment to harboring pathogens in indoor plumbing. This work evaluates electrochemical biofilm dispersion kinetics from boron-doped diamond (BDD) surfaces in situ using optical coherence tomography microscopy to track the volume of biofilm (biovolume) on the electrode. After starting with a 75 μm thick biofilm, applying 50 mA cm−2 results in near complete biofilm removal after 60 min, with a pseudo first-order biovolume removal rate of 0.023 min−1; higher applied currents had negligible additional benefits. Thus, it appears plausible to attain biofouling mitigation through electrochemical self-cleaning of BDD electrodes, potentially via the following two-step process: 1) hydroxyl radical production on the electrode surface which oxidizes polysaccharides or other cellular materials that attach bacteria to surface, followed by 2) gas evolution on the electrode surface (beneath the biofilm), which pushes and sloughs off the biofilm. This novel approach to biofouling management can find applications in electrochemical water treatment and other important surfaces (e.g., electrodes, membrane spacers, heat exchange surfaces, interior pipe surfaces, etc.) in water treatment systems where biofilms develop and harbor microbial pathogens.
KW - Biofilms
KW - Boron-doped diamond
KW - Electrochemical advanced oxidation
KW - Self-cleaning electrode
KW - Water treatment
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U2 - 10.1016/j.elecom.2018.10.002
DO - 10.1016/j.elecom.2018.10.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85054434532
SN - 1388-2481
VL - 96
SP - 83
EP - 87
JO - Electrochemistry Communications
JF - Electrochemistry Communications
ER -