Chemical Engineering Journal
Chemical Engineering Journal
5 years ago

Photocatalytic-induced electron transfer via anode-respiring bacteria (ARB) at an anode that intimately couples ARB and a TiO2 photocatalyst

Photocatalytic-induced electron transfer via anode-respiring bacteria (ARB) at an anode that intimately couples ARB and a TiO2 photocatalyst
A novel anode that intimately couples anode-respiring bacteria (ARB) with a nitrogen-doped TiO2 photocatalyst on a porous carbon foam electrode (the ICPB-anode) was fabricated and experimentally tested in an electrochemical cell. ARB are well known for obtaining energy by transferring bio-metabolized electrons to the anode, an external solid acceptor. The goal of this work was to identify if and how ARB play a role in transporting photo-generated electrons. When simulated visible-light illuminated an ICPB-anode, the current increased by ∼3 A/m2 (∼30% of the total), due to photocatalytically generated electrons (photo-electrons). In contrast, an abiotic photocatalyst anode (photo-anode) was incapable of transfering photo-electrons. Compared to a non-photocatalytic biofilm-anode, the Coulombic efficiency increased by 15–20% with the ICPB-anode, and the effect was due to the addition of electron flow from photocatalytic water electrolysis, since oxidation of the organic electron donor was unchanged. Electrochemical impedance analyses showed that the Ohmic resistance of the ICPB-anode decreased by ∼98%, compared with the abiotic photo-anode. A redox-potential window typical of ARB’s c-type cytochromes was up-regulated when the ARB transported photo-electrons, supporting that c-type cytochromes were the significant redox proteins for transferring photo-electrons. All the results combine to show that ARB were responsible for the transport of electrons generated by photocatalysis in the ICPB-anode.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S1385894718301104

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.