Electricity generation by two types of microbial fuel cells using nitrobenzene as the anodic or cathodic reactants

Jie Li; Guangli Liu; Renduo Zhang; Yong Luo; Cuiping Zhang; Mingchen Li

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2009.12.135

Electricity generation by two types of microbial fuel cells using nitrobenzene as the anodic or cathodic reactants

Bioresour Technol. 2010 Jun;101(11):4013-20. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2009.12.135.

Authors

Jie Li¹, Guangli Liu, Renduo Zhang, Yong Luo, Cuiping Zhang, Mingchen Li

Affiliation

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510275, China. liugl@mail.sysu.edu.cn

PMID: 20137921
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2009.12.135

Abstract

The effect of nitrobenzene (NB) on electricity generation and simultaneous biodegradation of NB were studied with two types of microbial fuel cells (MFCs): a ferricyanide-cathode MFC with NB as the anodic reactant and a NB-cathode MFC. Compared to controls without NB, the presence of NB in the anode of the first MFC decreased maximum voltage outputs, maximum power densities and Coulombic efficiencies. No electricity was generated from the first MFC using NB as the sole fuel; however, the second MFC using NB as the electron acceptor generated electricity successfully with a maximum voltage of 400mV. NB was degraded completely within 24h in both anode and cathode chambers. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) profiles demonstrated that the presence of NB caused changes in relative abundance of the dominant bacterial species and emergence of new bacteria on the anodes.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Base Sequence
Bioelectric Energy Sources*
DNA Primers
Electricity*
Electrodes*
Nitrobenzenes / chemistry*
Polymerase Chain Reaction

Substances

DNA Primers
Nitrobenzenes
nitrobenzene