Abstract
Physicochemical properties are essential characteristics of organic compounds, which not only impact the fate of organic pollutants but also determine their application in biological processes. Here, we first found that the dielectric constants (ɛ) of organic pollutants negatively correlated to their strength for enhancing microbial Fe(III) reduction. Those with lower ɛ values than 2.61 potentially promoted the above process following the sequence carbon tetrachloride (CT) > benzene > toluene > tetrachloroethylene (PCE) due to their different ability to deprotonate the phosphorus-related groups on the outer cell membrane of iron-reducing bacteria Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 (MR-1). The stronger deprotonation of phosphorus-related groups induced more negative charge of cell surface and more strongly increased cell membrane permeability and consequently stimulated faster release of flavin mononucleotide (FMN) as an electron shuttle/cofactor for Fe(III) reduction. These findings are significant for understanding the biogeochemistry in multi-organic contaminated subsurface and providing knowledge for remediation strategies and current production.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41830862, 41672353, 41521001), Hubei Province for Innovative Research Groups (Grant no. 2018CFA028), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (CUGCJ1803 and CUGQY1928).
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41830862, 41672353, 41521001), Hubei Province for Innovative Research Groups (grant no. 2018CFA028), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (CUGCJ1803 and CUGQY1928).
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Shan Liu carried out all experiments, analyzed and interpreted the data, and drafted and revised the manuscript; Prof. Hui Liu conceived the idea, supervised the experiments, analyzed and interpreted the data, and proofread the final manuscript; Prof. Yao Huang, Jie Ma, Zhu Wang, and Rong Chen revised and proofread the final version to be published. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Liu, S., Liu, H., Huang, Y. et al. Dielectric constants of organic pollutants determine their strength for enhancing microbial iron reduction. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 67445–67455 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14060-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14060-9