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Updated: Aug 30, 2025

Self-standing Electrochemical Set-up to Enrich Anode-respiring Bacteria On-site
Published on: July 24, 2018
Water-fueled autocatalytic bactericidal pathway based on e-Fenton-like reactions triggered by galvanic corrosion and
Jizheng Yao1, Tao Jiang1, Yucheng Ji2
1Sino-German Joint Research Lab for Space Biomaterials and Translational Technology, Synergetic Innovation Center of Biological Optoelectronics and Healthcare Engineering (BOHE) Shaanxi Provincial Synergistic Innovation Center for Flexible Electronics & Health Sciences (FEHS), School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710072, PR China.
Abstract:
Water is generally considered to be an undesirable substance in fuel system, which may lead to microbial contamination. The antibacterial strategies that can turn water into things of value with high disinfection efficacy have been urgently needed for fuel system. Here, we reveal a water-fueled autocatalytic bactericidal pathway comprised by bi-metal micro-electrode system, which can spontaneously produce reactive oxygen species (mainly H2O2 and O2•-) by the electron Fenton-like reaction in water medium without external energy., The respiratory chain component of bacteria and the galvanic corrosion on the coated metals were two electron sources in the system. The specific model of Ag-Ru water-fueled autocatalytic (WFA) microelectrode particles presents extremely high disinfection efficiency (>99.9999%) in less than one hour for three aerobic bacteria (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis) in LB media and high disinfection efficiency for the anaerobic bacteria (Desulfovibrio alaskensis) in Postgate E media without natural light irradiation. Overall, the novel WFA Ag-Ru antibacterial material explored in this study has a high potential for sterilizing applications in fuel system and this work provides the potential for the development of non-chemical and water-based antibacterial materials, such as WFA Ag-Ru antibacterial coating on stainless steel.
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