engleski

The effect of the low amperage direct electric current on various microorganisms

Numerous literature reports describe the importance of microbiologically safe recreational waters, including sea water. Recent literature reports are focused on the studies examining the impact of electric current, as non-thermal and non-chemical method, for water disinfection. Among these studies a big interest is direct on the research of low amperage electric current which is generated between the electrodes and the lethal effect on microorganisms is accomplished within a few seconds. In our study we examined the effect of low amperage direct electric current (DC) on the survival of different prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms. Materials and methods: We used the apparatus for the generation of low amperage DC (4.5-4.9 A, 24 V) that has been constructed in personal performance. The study was performed in the standardized sea salt suspension for the marine aquariums. We examined the lethal effect of low amperage DC on several prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms including Legionella spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans Results: The lethal effect of low amperage DC was accomplished for all prokaryotic species tested within 20 seconds while the eukaryotic cells has shown to be slightly more resistant to low amperage DC with a lethal effect achieved within 30 seconds. Results of our experiments also include representative microphotographs for each tested strain. Conclusions: Our results show that the low amperage DC is suitable method for the reduction and elimination of the examined bacterial and fungal species in the standardized sea water solution within relatively short time period. Bacteria have shown to be more susceptible to DC treatment compared to eukaryotes.

Low amperage direct electrict current; Sea water; Microorganisms

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