Strategies for Improving Extracellular Electron Transfer Between Microbes and Electrode Materials

Over the last two decades, there has been a wealth of research in using microbially modified electrodes for various applications from microbial fuel cells to biosensing to electrosynthesis. The majority of these technologies are limited by slow extracellular electron transfer between the microbe and the electrode material. This talk will discuss chemical, materials, and biological strategies for improving extracellular electron transfer. It will start with a discussion of materials modification strategies for improving the surface area and biotic-abiotic interface to enhance current densities followed by a discussion of chemical strategies for mediating electron transfer. Finally, the use of synthetic biology to genetically engineer microbes to communicate directly with electrode surfaces will be discussed and the talk will compare and contrast the chemical, materials, and biological strategies for improving electron transfer and therefore performance of these bioelectrochemical systems.