(115k) Zeta Potential and Size Measuring of MS2 Virus Under Different pH and Ionic Strength

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Marioly Diaz

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and NSF WaterCAMPWS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

Abstract

The focus of this research is to determine the surface charge and aggregation of MS2 bacteriophage under different ionic strength and pH. This research uses MS2 bacteriophage. MS2 bacteriophage is a virus used as a surrogate for Rotavirus controls process treatments because it has similar shape, behavior, size, and nucleic acid structure as Rotavirus. In order to design a virus removal procedure (i.e. Adsorption, Photocatalysis) from water the first thing to do is find out what are the interfacial properties of MS2 bacteriophage. By knowing the behavior of MS2 Bacteriophage, a similar behavior can be expected for rotavirus. The technique used in this research to measure the surface charge and aggregation of the virus was Dynamic Light Scattering. The four different conditions used in this research were: Sodium Bicarbonate [100 mM] with pH 9, Sodium Chloride [150 mM] with pH 6.7, and finally PBS (Phosphate Buffer Saline) [11.9 mM] with pH 4 and pH 7.25. In conclusion, by size measuring two populations of MS2 bacteriophage were detected, one of them monodisperse and the other one aggregated. On the other hand, by Zeta Potential it was determined that the MS2 Bacteriophage was always negatively charge. With this information future researchers can design a water removal procedure for rotavirus in a fast, efficient and cost effective way.