Electrode acclimatization

Electrode Acclimatization and Growing Electrochemically Active Biofilms... 

Electrode acclimatization refers to the processes in which EABs are allowed time to populate an electrode surface it is often used for multispecies EABs [54,86,88-97]. The purpose of acclimatization is to increase electrode performance by enhancing biofilm attachment and/or to allow the biofilm electrode to reach a steady state OCP prior to use in a BES [98], The method of acclimatization affects the type of EAB grown on the biofilm electrode and can be focused on control of the current or of the biofilm electrode potential. Four acclimatization methods are common in the literature ... 

The majority of this book is dedicated to describing how to study extracellular electron transfer of EABs. Once the correct reactor configuration has been chosen and the EAB has been successfiiUy grown or acclimatized on an electrode, the next step is to study the electron transfer properties of the biofilm electrode using electrochemical techniques. There are many electrochemical techniques available however, we introduce only those frequently used to study electron transfer processes in EAB literature. 

In a long-term electrode polarization experiment, a selected polarization potential is applied to an electrode with an EAB grown on it and the current is measured. In this way, the total charge transferred in a batch system or the steady state current produced by the EABs in a continuous system can be measured. A long-term electrode polarization experiment identifies sustainable current generation that can be systematically related to controlled parameters such as polarization potential. While the technique appears similar to controlled electrode potential acclimatization, in which EABs are grown on polarized electrodes, the intents of the two are distinct and should be distinguished. For example, G. sulfurreducens DL-1 was allowed to acclimatize on an electrode for 5 months and resulted in selection for a new strain, G. sulfurreducens... 

KN400 [97]. Subsequently, the sustainable current productions of the two strains were measured using long-term electrode polarization experiments. The key value of performing electrode polarization experiments is to observe the electrochemical response of an EAB to a change in a controlled experimental parameter or the effects of acclimatization methods. 

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