2023 F. M. Becket Fellowship Fellowship – Summary Report: Illuminating Photo-enhanced Bioelectrocatalysis in Purple Bacteria

Abstract

Purple bacteria are a special subclass of photosynthetic bacteria known for their metabolic versatility, resistance to salinity, and bright red-violet pigmentation responsible for photosynthesis. Previous work by the Minteer group has demonstrated purple bacteria to be a viable electrochemical solution for sustainable decontamination of saline wastewater, in addition to biosensing and bio-electrosynthesis applications. Notably, the bacteria’s mechanism of transferring electrons to electrodes is directly related to their photosynthetic electron transfer chain, and current density is significantly enhanced in the presence of light. Often, the light sources used for photo-bioelectrochemistry experimental studies are high-intensity (∼100 mW per cm2) and not wavelength-specific. This leads to uncertainty of the mechanism of photo-enhanced bioelectrocatalysis and may also lead to photo-inhibition at higher light intensities. A novel method was developed to study the effect of isolated light wavelengths on photo-enhanced current.

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1149/2.f07234if

Journal

The Electrochemical Society Interface

Year

2023