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Oxygen Reduction Reaction Affected by Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria: Different Roles of Bacterial Cells and Metabolites

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Abstract

Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) were found to be capable of tolerating a certain amount of oxygen (O2), but how they affect oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has not been clear. The present work investigated the impact of SRB on ORR in 3.5 wt% sodium chloride solution with the cyclic voltammetry method. The addition of SRB culture solution hampered both the reduction of O2 to superoxide (O ·−2 ) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to water (H2O), and the influence of SRB metabolites was much larger than that of bacterial cells. Sulfide and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), typical inorganic and organic metabolic products, had great impact on ORR. Sulfide played an important role in the decrease of cathodic current for H2O2 reduction due to its hydrolysis and chemical reaction activity with H2O2. EPS were sticky, easy to adsorb on the electrode surface and abundant in functional groups, which hindered the transformation of O2 into O ·−2 and favored the reduction of H2O2 to H2O.

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Acknowledgement

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFB0300604 and 2014CB643304), Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (BS2015HZ018), and the Science and Technology Basic Research Program of Qingdao (15-9-1-54-jch).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Corrosion and Bio-fouling, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 Nanhai Road, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Jiajia Wu, Peng Wang, Dun Zhang, Yan Sun & Ee Li

  2. Shenzhen Marine Environment Monitoring Station, State Oceanic Administration, Shenzhen, 518067, China

    Huaiqun Liu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 (Jia) Yuquan Road, Beijing, China

    Ee Li

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  1. Jiajia Wu
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  2. Huaiqun Liu
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  5. Yan Sun
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Correspondence to Jiajia Wu or Dun Zhang.

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Wu, J., Liu, H., Wang, P. et al. Oxygen Reduction Reaction Affected by Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria: Different Roles of Bacterial Cells and Metabolites. Indian J Microbiol 57, 344–350 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12088-017-0667-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12088-017-0667-z

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