Surfactants-mediated the enhanced mobility of tetracycline in saturated porous media and its variation with aqueous chemistry.

Knowledge of the mobility of tetracycline (TC) antibiotics in porous media is critical to understand their potential environmental influences. The transport characteristics of TC in sand columns with three different surfactants, including Tween 80, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS), and didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DDAB) under various conditions were investigated in this study. Results demonstrated that all surfactants enhanced TC transport under neutral conditions (10 mM NaCl at pH 7.0). The observation was attributed mostly to deposition site competition, higher electrostatic repulsion between TC molecules and sand grains, steric hindrance, and the increase of TC hydrophilicity. Furthermore, the order of the transport-enhancement effects was generally observed as follows: DDAB > SDBS > Tween 80. The trend was controlled by the variation in the physicochemical properties of surfactants. It was noticed that the presence of Cu (a model divalent cation) in the background solution, the cation-bridging contributed to the promotion effects of DDAB or Tween 80 on TC mobility. Interestingly, SDBS considerably suppressed TC transport due to the precipitation of SDBS-Cu complexes onto sand surfaces. Moreover, the enhancement order of surfactants at pH 5.0 was similar to that pH 7.0. However, DDAB could inhibit TC transport in sand columns at pH 9.0, which were mainly caused by the decrease of electrostatic repulsion and the hydrophobicity induced by the binding cationic surfactant. Findings from this work provide novel insight into involvement of surfactants in antibiotic transport behaviors in the subsurface environment.