Selective assembly of microbe on patterned porous interfaces as potential membrane reactors for enhanced biodegradation of phenol

Abstract

The carriers of membrane reactors faced challenges of high cost, and decrease of adsorption and efficiency on the long-term use for wastewater treatment. A facile method to prepare a novel membrane reactor by assembly of microbe on porous interfaces via breath figure for efficient biodegradation of phenol was developed. After the preparation and localized modification of porous interfaces, microbe was selectively incorporated into the patterned cavities, with an extremely high loading amount of 1.56 × 108 /cm2. A much better degradation rate (23.08 mg·L−1·h−1) was achieved in the membrane reactor than free cells (15.7 mg·L−1·h−1), which was improved nearly 50%. The high activity of phenol hydroxylase and catechol 1,2-dioxygenase, and low level of SOD, CAT and POD gave rise to the efficient phenol degradation rate in membrane reactor. Moreover, a good stability under a wider pH (3−8) of membrane reactor presented the degradation efficiency 5–8 times higher than free microbe. Further, at the stress of heavy metal ions, an excellent treatment of phenol was still existed, enhancing the degradation efficiency 3–6 times than free microbe. This strategy provides a new route on the preparation of a cheap, highly efficient and stable membrane reactor, demonstrating its potential on environment and biomedicine.