Date of Award
Winter 2014
Publication Type
Master Thesis
Degree Name
M.Sc.
Department
Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research
Keywords
Health and environmental sciences, Earth sciences, Adsorption, Bacteria, Iron oxide, Microscopy, Surface complexation
Supervisor
Weisener, Christopher G.
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Adsorption onto mineral and bacterial surfaces affects the fate of aqueous metal(loid)s but there is currently a poor understanding of adsorption onto mixtures of these two sorbents. This thesis used chemical analyses and imaging to track selenate and copper adsorption by iron oxide- Escherichia coli composites during Fe(II) aq addition. No selenate adsorbed onto E. coli under the conditions in this study. Selenate adsorption onto composites was reduced compared to iron oxide. Surface complexation models (SCMs) suggested that the reduction in selenate adsorption was due to masking of iron oxide sites and aggregation of the mineral over time. Copper adsorbed primarily to the cells under the conditions in this study; however, some removal was due to co-precipitation within the iron oxide. SCMs overestimated copper removal as they did not account for masking of bacterial sites. In conclusion, metal(loid) removal is significantly affected by the presence of sorbent mixtures and redox processes.
Recommended Citation
Franzblau, Rachel E., "Metal ion adsorption onto bacteria-mineral composites" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5009.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/5009