促进微生物胞外电子转移的纳米材料研究进展

Research progress of nanomaterials promoting microbial extracellular electron transfer

摘要:

胞外电子转移(EET)是产电微生物在代谢过程中将自身产生的电子转移到外部电子受体过程，然而较为缓慢的胞外电子转移速率显著影响了微生物燃料电池（Microbial fuel cells, MFCs）的产电性能，提高胞外电子转移的效率对推动微生物燃料电池的大规模应用具有重要的意义。纳米材料由于具备优异的导电性、稳定性以及生物相容性，对于改善阳极与产电微生物之间的电子传递速率具有重要的作用。本文综述了胞外电子转移的主要路径，阐述了不同种类的纳米材料在促进胞外电子转移过程中的机理和其对应的MFCs的产电性能,并展望了纳米材料强化微生物EET过程在微生物电化学技术利用方面的研究前景。尽管提升微生物燃料电池的产电性能仍面临挑战，但纳米材料在促进EET工艺应用方面具有极大的潜力。关键词：胞外电子传递；纳米材料；产电微生物；电子传电机制；微生物燃料电池中图分类号：TB34；TM911.45 文献标识码： A 文章编号：

Abstract:

Extracellular electron transfer (EET) is a process in which electrically-generated microorganisms transfer electrons to external electron acceptors during metabolism. However, the relatively slow rate of extracellular electron transfer significantly affects the electrical performance of Microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Improving the efficiency of extracellular electron transfer is of great significance for promoting the large-scale application of microbial fuel cells. Due to their excellent electrical conductivity, stability and biocompatibility, nanomaterials have been widely used to promote the extracellular electron transfer of microorganisms. This review summarizes the main routes of extracellular electron transfer, expounds the mechanism of different kinds of nano materials in promoting the process of extracellular electron transfer and the electrical properties of their corresponding MFCs, and looks forward to the research prospect of nano materials strengthening microbial EET process in the utilization of microbial electrochemical technology. Although there are still challenges to improve the electrical performance of microbial fuel cells, nanomaterials have great potential to promote the application of EET processes.