2019-04-01 |
Reprinted with permission from ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2019, 11, 9, 8961-8968. Copyright 2019 American Chemical Society
For more than 10 years bioelectrical systems (BES) have been in the research focus of several groups at DECHEMA-Forschungsinstitut. In BES electroactive microorganisms often form biofilms on electrode surfaces to exchange electrons with the electrode (e.g. in microbial fuel cells or in microbial electrosynthesis).
During the biofilm formation (electroactive) microorganisms secrete extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), which represent the cell matrix. We observed that microorganisms cultivated in a BES secrete more EPS than microorganisms not cultivated under electroactive conditions. Furthermore, we found out that the major part of the EPS were proteins, which have been secreted to the culture broth.
Based on these findings future research will focus on the EPS composition of electroactive biofilms under different reaction conditions.
The findings were published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
Further biofilm research at DFI:
Research group Electrochemistry, Project Microbial Electrosynthesis
Research group Corrosion, Project Bio-based Corrosion Protection
