Poliovirus Interaction with Montmorillonite Clay: Electron Microscopy and Flocculation Studies

摘要

The objective of this research was to gain an understanding of the interaction between montmorillonite clay particles and Type I poliovirus particles. This knowledge would be useful in the quantification of viral contamination of underground water reservoirs left after land treatment of wastewater. Two topics were investigated: first, an attmept was made to photograph virus adsorbed on monodispersed clay particles; second, determination of the concentrations of clay, virus, and electrolyte which allowed the maintenance of monodispersed clay particle suspension was made. A drop of clay-virus suspension in an aqueous solution of ammonium bicarbonate, a volatile salt, was air-dried on an electron microscope sample holder. The samples were coated with gold, gold-palladium, or carbon to promote conductivity. Scanning electron micrographs were taken of the surface of the clay particles. The micrographs showed virus attached to the edge of the plate-shaped clay particle. A count of viruses adsorbed on clay gave an average of 0.156 + or - 0.02 virus particles per clay particle. In the second study, suspensions containing variable concentrations of virus, clay and phosphate buffered saline (PBS) electrolyte were prepared and photomicrographs were taken to ascertain the extent of clay flocculation. Monodispersed clay suspensions were obtained only in suspensions containing the highest virus concentration tested.