Screen-Printed Electrodes: New Tools for Developing Microbial Electrochemistry at Microscale Level

Energies

Marta Estevez-Canales²  Antonio Berná¹  Zulema Borjas¹  Abraham Esteve-Núñez² 

[1] IMDEA WATER, Technological Park of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid 28805, Spain;Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid 28871, Spain;

关键词: screen-printed electrodes (SPEs);    Geobacter sulfurreducens;    microbial electrochemistry;   

DOI  :  10.3390/en81112366

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) have a number of potential technological applications. In this work, we report the use of screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) as a tool to analyze the microbial electroactivity by using Geobacter sulfurreducens as a model microorganism. We took advantage of the small volume required for the assays (75 μL) and the disposable nature of the manufactured strips to explore short-term responses of microbial extracellular electron transfer to conductive materials under different scenarios. The system proved to be robust for identifying the bioelectrochemical response, while avoiding complex electrochemical setups, not available in standard biotechnology laboratories. We successfully validated the system for characterizing the response of Geobacter sulfurreducens in different physiological states (exponential phase, stationary phase, and steady state under continuous culture conditions) revealing different electron transfer responses. Moreover, a combination of SPE and G. sulfurreducens resulted to be a promising biosensor for quantifying the levels of acetate, as well as for performing studies in real wastewater. In addition, the potential of the technology for identifying electroactive consortia was tested, as an example, with a mixed population with nitrate-reducing capacity. We therefore present SPEs as a novel low-cost platform for assessing microbial electrochemical activity at the microscale level.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.