Enhanced catalytic capability of electroactive biofilm modified with different kinds of carbon nanotubes.

In this study two methods including coating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) layers on the electrode surface and adding CNTs-suspension during electrochemically active biofilms (EABs) growth were used, respectively, to develop CNTs hybrid EABs for enhancing electricity generation capability of EABs. EABs growth on the CNTs with functional groups of hydroxyl (CNTs-OH) or carboxyl (CNTs-COOH) and pristine CNTs without functionalization (P-CNTs) modified electrode was investigated. The maximum current densities of EABs growth on the P-CNTs, CNTs-OH and CNTs-COOH coated electrode were respective 1300 ± 117, 1082 ± 54 and 1124 ± 78 μA cm, which were much higher than unmodified electrode (663 μA cm). Meanwhile, EABs growth in doping CNTs-COOH or CNTs-OH suspensions system also produced twice higher current density than that on unmodified electrode. These results indicated that the current production of EABs can be significantly enhanced by coating P-CNTs, CNTs-OH, CNTs-COOH layers on the electrode surface or doping CNTs-OH and CNTs-COOH suspension into EABs. Furthermore, morphology analysis of as-obtained EABs had also been studied. It was found that there was no significant difference of the morphological characteristic for EABs growth on different types CNTs coated electrode surface. By comparison, a nano-hybrid porous structure of CNTs and EABs was observed when CNTs-COOH or CNTs-OH suspension was added into the medium during EABs growth, which will be responsible for high current generation.