Thermophilic Moorella thermoautotrophica-immobilized cathode enhanced microbial electrosynthesis of acetate and...

Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) is a promising technique that converts electricity and CO₂ to biofuels using microbes as the catalysts. However, most of previous MES are conducted at mesophilic temperatures and challenged by low performances. Here we report a significant electrosynthesis performance enhancement via immobilization of a thermophilic microbe to cathodes. A temperature-dependent electron uptake rate of Moorella thermoautotrophica was observed at a cathode potential of -0.4V (vs. SHE), with a maximum current density of 63.47mAm^-2 at 55°C. Moreover, electrosynthesis rates of formate and acetate at 55°C were accelerated by 23.2 and 2.8 fold than those of 25°C, respectively. Compared with natural biofilms, immobilization of M. thermoautotrophica with carbon nanoparticles to electrodes further enhanced acetate and formate production rates (by 14 and 7.9 fold), reaching 58.2 and 63.2mmolm^-2day^-1 at a coulombic efficiency of 65%, respectively. To our best knowledge, these are the highest electrosynthesis rates obtained thus far for pure cultures under the conditions of -0.4V (vs. SHE) and 55°C. This study, for the first time, demonstrates that embedding microbes to electrodes by carbon nanoparticles is a facile and efficient method of improving MES performance.