Issue 48, 2015

Thermally activated long range electron transport in living biofilms

Abstract

Microbial biofilms grown utilizing electrodes as metabolic electron acceptors or donors are a new class of biomaterials with distinct electronic properties. Here we report that electron transport through living electrode-grown Geobacter sulfurreducens biofilms is a thermally activated process with incoherent redox conductivity. The temperature dependency of this process is consistent with electron-transfer reactions involving hemes of c-type cytochromes known to play important roles in G. sulfurreducens extracellular electron transport. While incoherent redox conductivity is ubiquitous in biological systems at molecular-length scales, it is unprecedented over distances it appears to occur through living G. sulfurreducens biofilms, which can exceed 100 microns in thickness.

Graphical abstract: Thermally activated long range electron transport in living biofilms

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Aug 2015
Accepted
28 Sep 2015
First published
28 Sep 2015

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015,17, 32564-32570

Author version available

Thermally activated long range electron transport in living biofilms

M. D. Yates, J. P. Golden, J. Roy, S. M. Strycharz-Glaven, S. Tsoi, J. S. Erickson, M. Y. El-Naggar, S. Calabrese Barton and L. M. Tender, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015, 17, 32564 DOI: 10.1039/C5CP05152E

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