The development of novel tools for studying the fouling behavior during membrane processes is critical. This work explored optical coherence tomography (OCT) to quantitatively interpret the formation of a cake layer during a membrane process; the quantitative analysis was based on a novel image processing method that was able to precisely resolve the 3D structure of the cake layer on a micron scale. Fouling experiments were carried out with foulants having different physicochemical characteristics (silica nanoparticles and bentonite particles). The cake layers formed at a series of times were digitalized using the OCT-based characterization. The specific deposit (cake volume/membrane ...

Mechanical and structural properties of biofilms influence the accumulation and release of pathogens in drinking water distribution systems (DWDS). Thus, understanding how long-term residual disinfectants exposure affects biofilm mechanical and structural properties is a necessary aspect for pathogen risk assessment and control. In this study, elastic modulus and structure of groundwater biofilms was monitored by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) during three months of exposure to monochloramine or free chlorine. After the first month of disinfectant exposure, the mean stiffness of monochloramine or free chlorine treated biofilms was 4 to 9 times higher than those before ...

Gold nanorods (GNRs, ~50 x 15 nm) have been used ubiquitously in biomedicine for their optical properties, and many biofunctionalization methods have been described for them. Recently, the synthesis of larger-than-usual GNRs (LGNRs, ~100 x 30 nm) has been demonstrated. However, LGNRs have not been biofunctionalized and therefore remain absent from biomedical literature to date. Here we report the first biofunctionalization of LGNRs, resulting in highly stable particles with a narrow spectral peak (FWHM ~100 nm). We further demonstrated that functionalized LGNRs can be used as highly sensitive contrast agents for Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), visualizing individual LGNRs in clear ...

Biofilms in drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) could exacerbate the persistence and associated risks of pathogenic Legionella pneumophila, thus raising human health concerns. However, mechanisms controlling adhesion and subsequent detachment of L. pneumophila associated with biofilms remain unclear. We determined the connection between L. pneumophila adhesion and subsequent detachment with biofilm physical structure characterization using optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging technique. Analysis of the OCT images of multi-species biofilms grown under low nutrient condition up to 29 weeks revealed the lack of biofilm deformation even when these biofilms were exposed to flow velocity of 0.7 m/s, typical flow ...

Fouling control is one of the critical issues in membrane filtration and plays a very important role in water/wastewater treatment. Better understanding of the underlying fouling mechanisms entails novel characterization techniques that can realize a real-time non-invasive observation and provide high resolution images recording the formation of a fouling layer . This work presents a characterization method based on optical coherence tomography (OCT), which is able to detect the internal structures and motions by analyzing the interference signals. An OCT system was incorporated with a lab-scale membrane filtration system, and the growth of the fouling layer was observed by using ...

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a low-coherence interferometric imaging method which was developed in the 1990s prevalently in the area of biomedical diagnostics. (1) It generates depth scans of samples in a contact-free, nondestructive manner. Having become a standard method for ophthalmologic examinations, (2, 3) within the past decade also applications outside the medical field were found, as summarized in a recent review (4) and with a special focus put on polymer science: in contrast to biological tissues, polymers usually do not contain water and therefore also light in the near-infrared (NIR) region, which otherwise would be absorbed, can be ...

The lack of an effective technique for three-dimensional flow visualization has limited the experimental exploration of the “coffee ring effect” to the two dimensional, top-down viewpoint. In this report, high-speed, cross-sectional imaging of the flow fields was obtained by using optical coherence tomography to track particle motion in an evaporating colloidal water drop. This approach enables z-dimensional mapping of primary and secondary flow fields and changes in these fields over time. These sectional images show that 1μm diameter polystyrene particles have a highly non-uniform vertical distribution with particles accumulating at both the air-water interface and water-glass interface during drop ...

We investigated the feasibility of constructing an implantable optical-based sensor for seminoninvasive continuous monitoring of analytes. In this novel sensor, analyte concentration-dependent changes induced in the degree of optical turbidity of the sensing element can be accurately monitored by optical coherence tomography (OCT), an interferometric technique. To demonstrate proof-of-concept, we engineered a sensor for monitoring glucose concentration that enabled us to quantitatively monitor the glucose-specific changes induced in bulk scattering (turbidity) of the sensor. The sensor consists of a glucose-permeable membrane housing that contains a suspension of macroporous hydrogel particles and concanavalin A (ConA), a glucose-specific lectin, that are designed ...