Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have emerged as a promising technology for simultaneous waste treatment and electricity generation. Discovering electrochemically active bacteria in a wide variety of microorganisms from MFC is of much interest and will make this technology feasible for widespread application. In this work, we investigated the direct electrochemical behavior of a Gram-positive bacterium. This microorganism was capable of current production from glucose without the need for an electron-shutting mediator in MFCs. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis confirmed that the direct electron transfer from the bacteria to the electrode was mainly via outer membrane c-type cytochromes. Furthermore, scanning electron microscope (SEM) images revealed the presence of multi-player biofilms on the anode surface and the appearance of pili that may allow the organisms to reach more distant solid electron acceptor

Direct electron transfer from a Gram-positive bacterium in microbial fuel cells

244th National Meeting (2012)

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