Influence of Surface Zeta Potential on Adhesion of <i>Chlorella sp. to Substratum Surfaces</i>

Abstract

Microalgae, in wet conditions, tend to grow on surfaces and form biofilms. The adhesion of microalgae to surfaces is very important for algal mass culture. The formation and development of microalgal biofims are in large denpend on the properties of cell surface, substratum surface and gowth medium. In this paper, the influence of substratum surface zeta potential on the microalgal biofilms was particularly investigated. We focused on a widely-used microalgal strain, the freshwater autotrophic Chlorella sp..The adhesion phenomena of Chlorella sp. to surfaces with different zeta potential were observed microscopically. It was found that Chlorella sp. adhered easily to the surface with a positive zeta potential and difficultly to the surface with a negative zeta potential. We concluded that the surface zeta potential had a greater influence on the adhesion of microalgal cells to substratum surfaces. Our findings have important implications for microalgae mass culture and harvesting.

Antimicrobial activities and mechanism of sturgeon spermary protein extracts against Escherichia coli

“…A low absolute value of surface potential, usually characterized by zeta potential, results in easy bacterial coagulation and adhesion and a high system stability ( 33 ). E. coli cells gradually generate some acidic metabolites during growth and metabolic processes.…”

Multidrug resistant pathogenic bacterial biofilm inhibition by Lactobacillus plantarum exopolysaccharide

“…Influence of net surface charge on adhesion of microorganisms is widely described [40,41]. Cell wall components are found to be responsible for the net negative charge [42] and play an important role in the adhesion of cells to the surface and establishment of biofilms.…”