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Updated: Jan 27, 2026

Quantification of Heavy Metals and Other Inorganic Contaminants on the Productivity of Microalgae
Published on: July 10, 2015
On-line monitoring of heavy metals-related toxicity with a microbial fuel cell biosensor
Ademola Adekunle1, Vijaya Raghavan2, Boris Tartakovsky3
1McGill University, Bioresource Engineering Department, 21111 Lakeshore Rd., Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, Canada H9X 3V9; National Research Council of Canada, 6100 Royalmount Ave, Montreal, QC, Canada H4P 2R2.
Abstract:
This study describes an environmental biosensor for real time toxicity monitoring, which exploits high sensitivity of a microbial fuel cell (MFC) to variations in concentrations of electron donors and acceptors. Fast biosensor response to changes in total heavy metal concentration of a mining rock drainage was observed in laboratory tests with acceptable repeatability and a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.95-0.97. The biosensor response is attributed to interference of heavy metals with the activity of electroactive microorganisms. Biomolecular analysis of the anodic electroactive biofilms showed significant population differences between microbial populations of the biosensor exposed to heavy metals and a non-exposed (control) biosensor. Furthermore, the biosensor outputs were highly correlated (R2 = 0.92) with the results of the Microtox toxicity assay. The results of this study contribute towards the development of a simple MFC-based biosensor capable of detecting, in real-time, changes in environmental conditions and providing a tool for on-site toxicity monitoring.
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