Protamine Promotes Direct Electron Transfer Between Shewanella Oneidensis Cells and Carbon Nanomaterials in Bacterial Biocomposites

Abstract

Invited for this month's cover picture is the group of Dr. Mathieu Etienne from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France). The cover picture shows the building block of the bacterial biocomposite made of Shewanella oneidensis, multi‐walled carbon nanotubes, and protamine. The close look at the bacterial membrane shows how protamine, which is positively charged (in blue), promotes self‐assembly between the negatively charged polymers on the bacterial membrane surface (in red) and the negative surface of multi‐walled carbon nanotubes, allowing direct electron transfer reactions. The background of the image is a detail of a scanning electron microscopy image of the biocomposite deposited on a glassy carbon surface, forming the so‐called electroactive artificial biofilm. Read the full text of the Article at 10.1002/celc.201801751.

The interaction between microbes and electrodes decorated with bio‐reduced graphene oxide— from an electrochemical point of view

“…Since the ability of a bacterium to exchange extracellular electrons with an electrode was discovered, considerable attention has been given to the characteristics of interactions between microbes and electrodes 1,2 . Extracellular electron transfer (EET) can shed light on the interaction between microorganisms and electrodes in bio‐electrochemical systems (BESs) 3,4 . In BESs, anode‐respiring bacteria (ARB) oxidize organic substrates and subsequently transfer electrons to a solid anode through EET to generate a bio‐electrical current 5 .…”