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Updated: May 7, 2026

Inactivation of Pathogens via Visible-Light Photolysis of Riboflavin-5′-Phosphate
Published on: April 6, 2022
A photoelectrocatalytic process that disinfects water contaminated with Mycobacterium kansasii and Mycobacterium
Michelle Fernanda Brugnera1, Marcelo Miyata, Guilherme Julião Zocolo
1Department of Analytical Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry of Araraquara, UNESP, Rua Francisco Degni, 55 - Bairro Quitandinha, 14800-900 Araraquara, SP, Brazil.
Abstract:
Nontuberculous mycobacteria are resistant to conventional water treatment; indeed, they have been recovered from a wide variety of environmental sources. Here, we applied the photoelectrocatalytic technique using a Ti/TiO2-Ag photoanode to inactivate mycobacteria. For a mycobacteria population of 5 × 10(8) CFU mL(-1), we achieved 99.9 and 99.8% inactivation of Mycobacterium kansasii and Mycobacterium avium with rate constant of 6.2 × 10(-3) and 4.2 × 10(-3) min(-1), respectively, after 240 min. We compared the proposed method with the photolytic and photocatalytic methods. Using a mycobacteria population of 7.5 × 10(4) CFU mL(-1), the proposed Ti/TiO2-Ag photoanode elicited total mycobacteria inactivation within 3 min of treatment; the presence of Ag nanoparticles in the electrode provided 1.5 larger degradation rate constant as compared with the Ti/TiO2 anode (1.75 × 10(-2) for M. kansassi and 1.98 × 10(-2) for M. avium). We monitored the degradation of the metabolites released during cellular lysis by TOC removal, sugar release, chromatography, and mass spectrometry measurements; photoelectrocatalysis and Ti/TiO2-Ag photoanodes furnished the best results.
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