FORMATION MECHANISM OF CARBON FIBER BIOFILMS I. EFFECTS OF CARBON FIBER SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS ON THE IMMOBILIZATION OF MICROORGANISMS

Surface characteristics such as surface functional groups, specific surface area and wetting quality of activated carbon fiber (ACF), as well as their effects on the immobilization of microorganisms was systematically studied with chemical analysis, surface analysis, biological consistency characterization, etc. The results showed that: (1) Surface adsorption played an important role in activated carbon fibers' ability to fix microorganisms initially, based on the fact that ACF with higher specific surface area tended to fix microorganisms more easily. (2) An increase in the number of some acid functional groups and surface wetting quality was helpful to microorganism fixing. (3) Carbon fibers, especially ACF, have a much better biological consistency than most commercial organic macromolecular materials. The speed of microorganism immobilization on the former is 4-16 times higher than that of the latter.