Biotoxicity and bioavailability of hydrophobic organic compounds solubilized in nonionic surfactant micelle phase and cloud point system.

A recent work has shown that hydrophobic organic compounds solubilized in the micelle phase of some nonionic surfactants present substrate toxicity to microorganisms with increasing bioavailability. However, in cloud point systems, biotoxicity is prevented, because the compounds are solubilized into a coacervate phase, thereby leaving a fraction of compounds with cells in a dilute phase. This study extends the understanding of the relationship between substrate toxicity and bioavailability of hydrophobic organic compounds solubilized in nonionic surfactant micelle phase and cloud point system. Biotoxicity experiments were conducted with naphthalene and phenanthrene in the presence of mixed nonionic surfactants Brij30 and TMN-3, which formed a micelle phase or cloud point system at different concentrations. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, unable to degrade these compounds, was used for the biotoxicity experiments. Glucose in the cloud point system was consumed faster than in the nonionic surfactant micelle phase, indicating that the solubilized compounds had increased toxicity to cells in the nonionic surfactant micelle phase. The results were verified by subsequent biodegradation experiments. The compounds were degraded faster by PAH-degrading bacterium in the cloud point system than in the micelle phase. All these results showed that biotoxicity of the hydrophobic organic compounds increases with bioavailability in the surfactant micelle phase but remains at a low level in the cloud point system. These results provide a guideline for the application of cloud point systems as novel media for microbial transformation or biodegradation.