I am performing an experiment about the biodegradation of insoluble substances.
We first dissolved this insoluble substance in acetone to be a stock solution, then we add this stock solution to a liquid medium to stating a 14 days bacterial degradation test.
But the acetone in the liquid medium will volatilize as the experiment goes on, then the insoluble substance will be precipitated in the liquid medium.
therefore we can't analyze the concentration of the insoluble substance in the liquid medium perfectly.
How can we do to evenly sample the insoluble substance in the liquid medium and do not affect the bacteria growth simultaneously?
It is a common problem. How about a less volatile solvent? You would have to run a control with the solvent only. Alternatively, how about doing this in a chemostat to constantly add the acetone-substrate mixture?
If you add a surfactant in the medium before adding the acetone solution to it, it'll avoid the precipitation. I used to do it when working with PAH. I used 100 uM of PAH and 1% Tween80.
See this paper as example: Article Isolation of novel benzo[a]anthracene-degrading microorganis...
- Badges
- Science topic