Spectroscopic investigation of the interaction between extracellular polymeric substances and tetracycline during sorption onto anaerobic ammonium-oxidising sludge

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, the interaction between extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and tetracycline during sorption onto anaerobic ammonium-oxidising (anammox) sludge was investigated. The results showed that EPS significantly enhanced the adsorption efficiency of tetracycline by sludge, and the adsorption data were better fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetics model. Further, the concentration of proteins in the EPS decreased from 12.31 ± 0.42 to 6.82 ± 0.46 mg/gVSS for various tetracycline dosages (0–20 mg/L), whereas the concentration of polysaccharides did not change. Multiple spectroscopic methods were used to analyze the interaction between EPS and tetracycline. A three-dimensional excitation–emission matrix revealed that the fluorescence intensity of protein-like substances obviously decreased with the increasing addition of tetracycline. According to synchronous fluorescence spectra analysis, static quenching was the major quenching process and there was one type of binding site in the protein-like substances. Additionally, two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy showed that tryptophan-like aromatic protein was more susceptible to tetracycline binding than tyrosine-like aromatic protein. Moreover, the main functional groups involved in complexation of tetracycline and EPS were C–O, C–C and C–N (stretching vibration) and the pyrrole ring of the tryptophan side chain. This study provides useful information on the interaction between EPS and tetracycline and demonstrates the role of EPS in protecting microorganism from tetracycline in the anammox process.