Photocatalytic inactivation of bacteria by photocatalyst Bi2WO6 under visible light

The photocatalytic inactivation of Escherichia coli under visible light irradiation (λ > 420 nm) was performed with Bi2WO6 to investigate the photocatalytic bactericidal capability. Our work shows that the single phase oxide photocatalyst Bi2WO6 is effective in photocatalytic inactivation on E. coli. And the results revealed that the photocatalytic inactivation rate of E. coli with Bi2WO6 followed pseudo-first-order kinetics. The bactericidal action was directly observed by TEM and further proved by the measurement of K+ leakage from the inactive E. coli through the ICP-OES analysis. The results demonstrated that the photocatalysis could cause drastic damage in E. coli cells.