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Living and Conducting: Coating Individual Bacterial Cells with In Situ Formed Polypyrrole
Author(s) -
Song RongBin,
Wu YiChao,
Lin ZongQiong,
Xie Jian,
Tan Chuan Hao,
Loo Joachim Say Chye,
Cao Bin,
Zhang JianRong,
Zhu JunJie,
Zhang Qichun
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201704729
Subject(s) - shewanella oneidensis , polypyrrole , coating , microbial fuel cell , shewanella , conjugated system , polymerization , chemical engineering , materials science , bacteria , anode , polymer , conductive polymer , chemistry , nanotechnology , electrode , organic chemistry , biology , genetics , engineering
Coating individual bacterial cells with conjugated polymers to endow them with more functionalities is highly desirable. Here, we developed an in situ polymerization method to coat polypyrrole on the surface of individual Shewanella oneidensis MR‐1, Escherichia coli, Ochrobacterium anthropic or Streptococcus thermophilus. All of these as‐coated cells from different bacterial species displayed enhanced conductivities without affecting viability, suggesting the generality of our coating method. Because of their excellent conductivity, we employed polypyrrole‐coated Shewanella oneidensis MR‐1 as an anode in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and found that not only direct contact‐based extracellular electron transfer is dramatically enhanced, but also the viability of bacterial cells in MFCs is improved. Our results indicate that coating individual bacteria with conjugated polymers could be a promising strategy to enhance their performance or enrich them with more functionalities.