Affiliation:
1. Bioe Group, Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados IMDEA‐Agua Parque Tecnológico de la Universidad de Alcalá Alcalá de Henares Spain
2. Departamento de Química Analítica, Química Física e Ingeniería Química Universidad de Alcalá Alcalá de Henares Spain
3. Departamento de Química Física, Instituto Universitario de Materiales Universidad de Alicante Alicante Spain
Abstract
AbstractExpanded graphite (EG) electrodes gather several advantages for their utilization in microbial electrochemical technologies (MET). Unfortunately, the low microbial electroactivity makes them non‐practical for implementing them as electrodes. The objective of this work is to explore the enhancement of microbial electroactivity of expanded graphite (commercial PV15) through the generation of nanopores by CO2 treatment. The changes in properties were thoroughly analysed by TG, XRD, Raman, XPS, gas adsorption, SEM and AFM, as well as microbial electroactivity in the presence of Geobacter sulfurreducens. Nanopores remarkably enhance the microbially derived electrical current (60‐fold increase). Given the inaccessibility of micron‐sized bacteria to these nanopores, it is suggested that the electric charge exchanged by electroactive microorganisms might be greatly affected by the capability of the electrode to compensate these charges through ion adsorption. The increased microbial current density produced on activated PV15 opens the possibility of using such materials as promising electrodes in MET.
Funder
H2020 LEIT Nanotechnologies
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Subject
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology,Biochemistry,Bioengineering,Biotechnology