New insights into transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) formation from precursor materials at various Na+/Ca2+ ratios

Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) are planktonic, organic microgels which play significant roles in cycling of carbon and trace elements, aggregation of particles, feeding and accommodating microbes as well as development of biofilms. However, few studies are available on the mechanism of TEP f...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Meng, Shujuan, Liu, Yu
Other Authors: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/87462
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/46708
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-87462
record_format dspace
spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-874622022-02-16T16:29:56Z New insights into transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) formation from precursor materials at various Na+/Ca2+ ratios Meng, Shujuan Liu, Yu School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Advanced Environmental Biotechnology Centre (AEBC) Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Singapore Membrane Technology Centre Precursor Materials DRNTU::Engineering::Civil engineering Transparent Exopolymer Particles Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) are planktonic, organic microgels which play significant roles in cycling of carbon and trace elements, aggregation of particles, feeding and accommodating microbes as well as development of biofilms. However, few studies are available on the mechanism of TEP formation in various water environments. Here we investigate the formation of TEP with alginate blocks as precursors at various Na+/Ca2+ ratios to simulate the situations in different aquatic environments (e.g. freshwater and seawater). We found that the formation of TEP from precursor materials studied was essentially determined by the Ca2+ concentration at a fixed sodium concentration, while Na+ at high Na+/Ca2+ ratio out-competed Ca2+ for the binding sites on the precursor molecules, leading to a significantly decreased trend of TEP formation. Our results indicate that a more abundant TEP could be expected in freshwater than in seawater, and we also discuss the engineering implications of the findings. Published version 2018-11-26T08:05:53Z 2019-12-06T16:42:26Z 2018-11-26T08:05:53Z 2019-12-06T16:42:26Z 2016 Journal Article Meng, S., & Liu, Y. (2016). New insights into transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) formation from precursor materials at various Na+/Ca2+ ratios. Scientific Reports, 6, 19747-. doi:10.1038/srep19747 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/87462 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/46708 10.1038/srep19747 26790536 en Scientific Reports © 2016 The Authors (Nature Publishing Group). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 9 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Precursor Materials
DRNTU::Engineering::Civil engineering
Transparent Exopolymer Particles
spellingShingle Precursor Materials
DRNTU::Engineering::Civil engineering
Transparent Exopolymer Particles
Meng, Shujuan
Liu, Yu
New insights into transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) formation from precursor materials at various Na+/Ca2+ ratios
description Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) are planktonic, organic microgels which play significant roles in cycling of carbon and trace elements, aggregation of particles, feeding and accommodating microbes as well as development of biofilms. However, few studies are available on the mechanism of TEP formation in various water environments. Here we investigate the formation of TEP with alginate blocks as precursors at various Na+/Ca2+ ratios to simulate the situations in different aquatic environments (e.g. freshwater and seawater). We found that the formation of TEP from precursor materials studied was essentially determined by the Ca2+ concentration at a fixed sodium concentration, while Na+ at high Na+/Ca2+ ratio out-competed Ca2+ for the binding sites on the precursor molecules, leading to a significantly decreased trend of TEP formation. Our results indicate that a more abundant TEP could be expected in freshwater than in seawater, and we also discuss the engineering implications of the findings.
author2 School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
author_facet School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Meng, Shujuan
Liu, Yu
format Article
author Meng, Shujuan
Liu, Yu
author_sort Meng, Shujuan
title New insights into transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) formation from precursor materials at various Na+/Ca2+ ratios
title_short New insights into transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) formation from precursor materials at various Na+/Ca2+ ratios
title_full New insights into transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) formation from precursor materials at various Na+/Ca2+ ratios
title_fullStr New insights into transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) formation from precursor materials at various Na+/Ca2+ ratios
title_full_unstemmed New insights into transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) formation from precursor materials at various Na+/Ca2+ ratios
title_sort new insights into transparent exopolymer particles (tep) formation from precursor materials at various na+/ca2+ ratios
publishDate 2018
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/87462
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/46708
_version_ 1725985772809486336