Effect of surface potential on consumption of charged substrates
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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Surface Potential Measurement of Bacteria Using Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy
Published on: November 28, 2014
1Chemical Engineering Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.
Abstract:
Due to the surface charge inherent on all microorganism cell surfaces, the consumption of charged molecules by these microorganisms will be affected by the electrostatic interactions between the substrate and the cell surface. This article derives an equation that shows that these electrostatic interactions result in a change in the Monod half-velocity constant. The resulting rate of consumption is affected and can be either higher or lower than the rate of consumption of an uncharged substrate molecule.
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Charging Conductors By Induction
Generally, conductors like metals do not allow any excess charge to be present on them. Any excess charge added to metals easily flows away, for example, when a metal is placed on the Earth. This process is called earthing.
However, conductors can be charged by a process called induction. For example, consider charging a...

