Artificial three-dimensional biotops with electroactive bacteria for highly efficient microbial fuel cells by use of metal/polymer fiber hybrid structures

本课题的主题是制备用于微生物生物电化学系统（BES）的电活性细菌的人工生物群落。基于该提案第一个项目期的成功结果，我们现在想研究一种新的电极设计，这种设计将允许3d电极与电化学活性细菌更好地定植和相互渗透，以提高生物膜电极的效率和催化性能。我们计划项目的假设是基于这样的假设：在制备过程中，细菌和电极材料的共沉积将提供所需的相互渗透和加速电极操作。传统的、连续的电极制备和生物膜定植过程往往存在定植缓慢和电极不完全穿透3D结构的问题。我们的概念是基于湿法敷设工艺，我们最近成功地建立了短电纺纤维。这种湿法工艺为高质量的多孔纳米纤维非织造布提供了完美的途径。在湿法敷设过程中，通过添加银和铜纳米线来实现缺失但必需的导电性。同时，我们将在湿法敷设过程中添加包封细菌，最终得到高效BES所需的混合电极。为了验证我们的假设，我们将系统地研究湿法工艺获得的电极的组成，并将其与现有的BES电极进行比较。

The topic of this project is the preparation of artificial biotopes for electroactive bacteria for the use in microbial bioelectrochemical systems (BES). Based on the results of the successful first project period of this proposal, we want to investigate now a new electrode design that will allow the improved colonization and interpenetration of 3D-electrodes with electrochemically active bacteria, in order to improve the efficiency and the catalytic performance of biofilm electrodes. The hypothesis of our intended project is based on the assumption that the co-deposition of bacteria and electrode material in the preparation will provide the required interpenetration and accelerated electrode operation. Conventional, consecutive procedures of electrode preparation and biofilm colonization often suffer from slow colonization and incomplete electrode penetration of 3D structures. Our concept is based on the wet-laid process, which we have recently successfully established for short electrospun fibers. This wet-laid process provided perfect access to high quality porous nanofiber nonwovens. The missing but required electrical conductivity will be realized by addition of silver and copper nanowires during the wet-laid process. Simultaneously, we will add encapsulated bacteria during the wet-laid process, which should finally result in the required hybrid electrode required for high efficient BES. We will systematically study the composition of the electrodes obtained by the wet-laid process and benchmark it with existing BES electrodes in order to verify our hypothesis.