Effects of azide on electron transport of exoelectrogens in air-cathode microbial fuel cells

Zhou X 1 , Qu Y 2 , Kim BH 3 , Choo PY 4 , Liu J 1 , Du Y 1 Show all authors , He W 1 , Chang IS 5 , Ren N 1 , Feng Y 6

Affiliations 

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
  • 2 State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China; School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Nangang District, Harbin, China
  • 3 State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China; Bioelectrochemistry Laboratory, Water Environment and Remediation Research Centre, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea; Fuel Cell Institute, National University of Malaysia, 43600 UKM, Bangi, Malaysia
  • 4 Bioelectrochemistry Laboratory, Water Environment and Remediation Research Centre, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea
  • 5 Energy and Biotechnology Laboratory, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea
  • 6 State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. Electronic address: yujief@hit.edu.cn
Bioresour Technol, 2014 Oct;169:265-70.
PMID: 25062537 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2014.07.012

Abstract

The effects of azide on electron transport of exoelectrogens were investigated using air-cathode MFCs. These MFCs enriched with azide at the concentration higher than 0.5mM generated lower current and coulomb efficiency (CE) than the control reactors, but at the concentration lower than 0.2mM MFCs generated higher current and CE. Power density curves showed overshoot at higher azide concentrations, with power and current density decreasing simultaneously. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) showed that azide at high concentration increased the charge transfer resistance. These analyses might reflect that a part of electrons were consumed by the anode microbial population rather than transferred to the anode. Bacterial population analyses showed azide-enriched anodes were dominated by Deltaproteobacteria compared with the controls. Based on these results it is hypothesized that azide can eliminate the growth of aerobic respiratory bacteria, and at the same time is used as an electron acceptor/sink.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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