Lacking of clean freshwater has been one of the biggest challenges throughout the world1. Contaminated water is one of the biggest sources of potentially hazardous microorganisms that can cause severe health problem for humans either by direct consumption or through use in washing of food materials and food contact surfaces. According to the traditional water disinfection methods such as chlorination and ozonation have shown disadvantages related to the formation of potentially hazardous disinfection byproduct (DBPs) with carcinogenic and mutagenic potential2. Public health and environmental concerns would continue to drive efforts to decontaminate waters with more effective, lower-cost, and ecofriendly methods3. Therefore, research on more …show more content…
It can be induced by UV light irradiation of the photocatalyst and subsequent generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) oxidizing adsorbed pollutants4. For UV system, an electrons (e−CB) -holes (h+ VB) pair appears to generate on the surface of TiO2, after excitation by light having less than 385 nm wavelength. The generation of electron-hole pairs is separated between the conductance band (CB) and valence band (VB). After the excitation on the surface of semiconductors, water and oxygen got converted into reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as • O2−, • OH and H2O2. Organic matter (organic pollutant/ bacterial cells, OM) is adsorbed on the surface of TiO2 particles can be oxidized by the ROS. Typically, the ROSs (h+ VB, • O2−, • OH and H2O2) are believed to be most effective oxidizing agent for bacterial cells 1, 5, …show more content…
Because the disinfection effects of cells remain difficult to analysis at a nanometric level. And the cell structure might be twisted when it was analyzed in the vacuum chamber by conventional electron microscopes (e.g. SEM and TEM). Rapid developments in ultrahigh resolution microscopes such as atomic force microscope (AFM) and transmission X-ray microscope (TXM) were used in biological research. AFM is a highly versatile microscopy technique that is particularly well suited to the study of microorganisms. AFM combines a greatly improved resolution when compared to optical microscopy with little or no sample preparation required. The major advantage of AFM is capable of analyzing samples in their natural, hydrated state. AFM allows measurements of surface nanostructure in aqueous media of controlled composition, which makes it ideal for analyzing cell wall response during photo-disinfection. AFM provides the opportunity to image single bacterial cells; it can also be used to image several cells where aggregates of microorganisms adhere to each other on a surface. AFM is not only an imaging technology. It is also a highly sensitive force machine, able to measure forces as small as 10 to 20 pN, which give measures and properties of the living material. Nanomechanical properties and nano-adhesive properties of the microorganism can be