Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 15, 2026

The Polyvinyl Alcohol Sponge Model Implantation
Published on: April 18, 2012
Adsorption and biodegradation functions of novel microbial embedding polyvinyl alcohol gel beads modified with
Nan Wu1, Xiaofang Li2, Guoshuai Huang2
1a College of Engineering and Technology, Tianjin Agricultural University , Tianjin , People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
A novel microorganism embedding material was developed to enhance the benzene removal through adsorption and biodegradation, by introducing β-cyclodextrin (CD) to traditional polyvinyl alcohol gel beads. Results show that the optimal ratio of sucrose/benzene was 1.25 for co-metabolism biodegradation of benzene, and the maximum exogenous microbial respiration rate was 260.13 mgO2/(gVSS h) for gel beads with CD. The positive effects of CD on benzene removal mainly resulted from the adsorption characteristics of CD as well as the stimulation of CD on microbial activity. Adsorption tests indicate that CD addition increased the adsorption function of gel beads to benzene with its dispersion coefficient of 5.1 × 10-7 cm2/s. Respiration tests show that gel beads with CD possessed the highest maximum specific exogenous respiration rates. Moreover, a high-throughput sequencing analysis confirms that CD addition could obviously enhance microbial diversity with domain microbial of Zoogloea (17.0%). Finally, microbial embedding gel beads could remove certain benzene after lyophilization and storage for one month. Overall, the novel microbial embedding gel beads modified with CD (a favorable additional agent to traditional embedding materials) have been proved as an efficient method for removing benzene under suitable sucrose/benzene ratio.
Related Concept Videos
Analyte Adsorption and Distribution
Oxidation of Alcohols
The process of oxidation in a chemical reaction is observed in any of the three forms:
Structure of Benzene: Molecular Orbital Model
Benzene to Phenol via Cumene: Hock Process
Ethers from Alcohols: Alcohol Dehydration and Williamson Ether Synthesis
Ethers can be prepared from organic compounds by various methods. Some of them are discussed below,
Preparation of Ethers by Alcohol Dehydration
In this method, in the presence of protic acids, alcohol dehydrates to produce alkenes and ethers under different conditions. For example, in the presence of sulphuric acid, dehydration of ethanol at 413 K yields ethoxyethane, whereas it yields ethene at 443 K.
Protection of Alcohols
Protection
It defines a protecting group as the masking agent to make the more reactive species inert to a given set of conditions. This concept is depicted via the illustration of liquid flow through different outlets in an assembly of pipes. The analogy helps to understand the role...

