An evaluation of biofilm development utilizing non‐destructive attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

Chemical changes that occur within a microbial biofilm during development on a germanium internal reflection element (IRE) were monitored by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spec‐troscopy (ATR/FT‐IR) for 188 h. The amount of protein detected at the IRE/medium interface increased throughout the course of the experiment. Extracellular polysaccharides were mainly produced during the initial stages of biofilm development. These results demonstrate that changes in metabolic activity of surface‐associated bacteria during biofilm development on surfaces exposed to a flowing bulk aqueous phase can be evaluated by ATR/FT‐IR.

Key words:

• Bacteria
• extracellular polysaccharides
• protein