An Environmentally Friendly Method for Testing Photocatalytic Inactivation of Cyanobacterial Propagation on a Hybrid Ag-TiO₂ Photocatalyst under Solar Illumination.

Cyanobacteria were inactivated under sunlight using mixed phase silver (Ag) and deposited titanium dioxide (TiO₂) coated on the surface of diatomite (DM) as a hybrid photocatalyst (Ag-TiO₂/DM). The endpoints of dose-response experiments were chlorophyll a, photosynthetic efficiency, and flow cytometry measurements. In vitro experiments revealed that axenic cultures of planktonic cyanobacteria lost their photosynthetic activity following photocatalyzed exposure to sunlight for more than 24 h.