Biotoxicity evaluation of zinc oxide nanoparticles on bacterial performance of activated sludge at COD, nitrogen, and phosphorus reduction

doi:10.1007/s11783-021-1453-z

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2022, Vol. 16

Issue (2) : 19 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1453-z

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Biotoxicity evaluation of zinc oxide nanoparticles on bacterial performance of activated sludge at COD, nitrogen, and phosphorus reduction

Hasti Daraei^1,²(

), Kimia Toolabian³, Ian Thompson⁴, Guanglei Qiu⁵

¹. Environmental Health Engineering Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
². Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
³. Faculty of Agriculture and natural resources, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
⁴. Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PJ, UK
⁵. School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China

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Abstract

• ZnO-NP disrupted metabolic/catabolic balance of bacteria by affecting DHA activity.

• ZnO-NPs toxicity was related to Zn²⁺ ion, interaction with cell and ROS generation.

• Exposure to ZnO-NPs resulted in changed bacterial community structure at sludge.

• The change in the EPS content was observed during exposure to ZnO-NPs.

The unique properties and growing usage of zinc oxide nanoparticles increase their release in municipal wastewater treatment plants. Therefore, these nanoparticles, by interacting with microorganisms, can fail the suitable functioning of biological systems in treatment plants. For this reason, research into the toxicity of ZnO is urgent. In the present study, the toxicity mechanism of ZnO-NPs towards microbial communities central to granular activated sludge (GAS) performance was assessed over 120-day exposure. The results demonstrate that the biotoxicity of ZnO-NPs is dependent upon its dosage, exposure time, and the extent of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Furthermore, GAS performance and the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) content were significantly reduced at 50 mg/L ZnO-NPs. This exposure led to decreases in the activity of ammonia monooxygenase (25.2%) and nitrate reductase (11.9%) activity. The Field emission scanning electron microscopy images confirmed that ZnO-NPs were able to disrupt the cell membrane integrity and lead to cell/bacterial death via intracellular ROS generation which was confirmed by the Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy analysis. After exposure to the NPs, the bacterial community composition shifted to one dominated by Gram-positive bacteria. The results of this study could help to develop environmental standards and regulations for NPs applications and emissions.

Keywords Granular sludge Biotoxicity Reactive oxygen species Extracellular polymeric substances

Corresponding Author(s): Hasti Daraei

Issue Date: 27 May 2021

Cite this article:

Hasti Daraei,Kimia Toolabian,Ian Thompson, et al. Biotoxicity evaluation of zinc oxide nanoparticles on bacterial performance of activated sludge at COD, nitrogen, and phosphorus reduction[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(2): 19.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-021-1453-z
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2022/V16/I2/19

Fig.1 FESEM images of GAS exposed to (a) 0 mg/L (control), (b) 1mg/L, (c) 10 mg/L and (d) 50 mg/L ZnO-NPs.

Fig.2 Performance of GAS at different ZnO-NPs dosages (a) COD, (b) TN, (c) TP comparing influent and effluent.

Fig.3 ZnO-NPs impact on the enzymatic activities; DHA, AMO, NOR, NAR, NIR, PPX, PPK. Error bars display SD of triplicate experiments.

Tab.1 Effect of ZnO-NPs on the Compositions of EPS at GAS

Fig.4 ROS production of GAS at different ZnO-NPs dosages. Error bars display SD of triplicate experiments.

Fig.5 Distribution profiles of dead and live cells in GAS in the absence (a1-a3) and presence (b1?b3) of 50 mg ZnO-NP/L with SYTO63 (live cell, red), and SYTOX Blue (dead cell, blue).

Fig.6 Relative taxonomic abundance for each sample at the phylum level.

Fig.7 Heat map analysis of the most abundant genera detected in the GAS in the absence and presence of ZnO-NPs.

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