Disinfection Kinetics and Contribution of Reactive Oxygen Species When Eliminating Bacteria with TiO2 Induced Photocatalysis

Titania (TiO2) induced photocatalysis has been widely investigated and applied as a disinfection strategy in many industrial and clinical applications. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), including hydroxyl radicals (•OH), superoxide radicals ( − •2 O ) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), generated in the photocatalytic reaction process are considered to be the active components prompting the bactericidal effect. In the present work, the kinetics of photocatalytic inactivation of Staphylococcus epidermidis and specific contributions of •OH, − •2 O and H2O2 to the bactericidal process were studied using two disinfection settings sutilizing photocatalytic resin-TiO2 nanocomposite surfaces and suspended TiO2 nanoparticles, respectively. In antibacterial tests against S. epidermidis with a layer of bacterial suspension on the resin-TiO2 surfaces, H2O2 was found to be the most efficient ROS component contributing to the antibacterial effect. Disinfection kinetics showed a two-step behavior with an initial region having a lower disinfection rate followed by a higher rate region after 10 min of UV irradiation. By contrast, in antibacterial tests with suspended bacteria and photocatalytic TiO2 nanoparticles, •OH and H2O2 showed equal significance in the bacterial inactivation having a typical Chick-Watson disinfection kinetics behavior with a steady disinfection rate. The results contribute to the understanding of the bactericidal mechanism and kinetics of photocatalytic disinfection that are essential for designing specific antibacterial applications of photocatalytic materials.