Department of Microbiology, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India.
J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2010 May;20(5):908-16. doi: 10.4014/jmb.0910.10025.
Fullerene-60 nanoparticles were used for studying their influence upon the LDPE biodegradation efficiency of two potential polymer-degrading consortia comprising of three bacterial strains each. At a concentration of 0.01% (w/v) in minimal broth lacking dextrose, fullerene did not have any negative influence upon the consortial growth. However, fullerene was found to be detrimental for bacterial growth at higher concentrations (viz. 0.25%, 0.5% and 1%). Although, addition of 0.01% fullerene into the biodegradation assays containing 5 mg/ml LDPE subsided growth-curves significantly, but subsequent analysis of degraded products revealed enhanced biodegradation. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) revealed breakage and formation of chemical bonds along with introduction of nu C-O frequencies into hydrocarbon backbone of LDPE. Further, simultaneous thermogravimetric-differential thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTG-DTA) revealed higher number of decomposition steps along with a 1,000-fold decrease in the heat of reactions (DeltaH) in fullerene-assisted biodegraded LDPE suggesting probable formation of multiple, macromolecular by-products. This is the first report whereby fullerene-60, which is otherwise considered toxic, has helped to alleviate polymer biodegradation process of bacterial consortia.
富勒烯-60 纳米颗粒被用于研究它们对两个潜在的聚合物降解生物群落的 LDPE 生物降解效率的影响，这两个生物群落每个都包含三种细菌菌株。在缺乏葡萄糖的最小肉汤中的浓度为 0.01%（w/v）时，富勒烯对群落生长没有任何负面影响。然而，在更高的浓度（即 0.25%、0.5%和 1%）下，富勒烯被发现对细菌生长有害。虽然将 0.01%的富勒烯添加到含有 5mg/mlLDPE 的生物降解测定中会显著抑制生长曲线，但随后对降解产物的分析表明生物降解得到了增强。傅里叶变换红外光谱（FT-IR）揭示了 LDPE 碳氢主链中化学键的断裂和形成，以及 nuC-O 频率的引入。此外，同步热重-差示热重-差示热分析（TG-DTG-DTA）显示在富勒烯辅助生物降解的 LDPE 中存在更多的分解步骤，以及反应热（DeltaH）下降了 1000 倍，这表明可能形成了多种大分子副产物。这是首次报道富勒烯-60 有助于减轻细菌群落的聚合物生物降解过程，而富勒烯-60 通常被认为是有毒的。
