Yale researchers discovered that light is a surprising factor for enhancing electronic activity in a global network of nanowires produced by bacteria. Light accelerates conductivity into nature’s ‘electricity’.
The natural world has its own internal electrical grid that consists of a global network of small nanowires produced by bacteria in the soil and oceans that “breathe” through the air electrons.
In a new study, researchers from Yale University have found that light is a surprising factor in promoting this electronic activity in biofilm bacteria. Light exposure of nanowires produced by bacteria increased electrical conductivity up to 100 times. The results were published on September 7 in the journal Nature Communications,
“The current dramatic increase in nanowires exposed to light shows a stable and strong photo that lasts for hours,” said lead author Nikhil Malvankar, an expert in biophysics at biochemistry (MBB) at the Institute. of Yale Microbial Sciences and Yale West said. School.
The research could provide new insights as scientists search for ways to use this hidden electricity for a variety of purposes, from disposing of organic waste to creating new sources of fuel.
Almost all living things breathe oxygen to get rid of excess electrons while converting nutrients into energy. Without oxygen, however, bacteria that live in the ocean floor or that have been buried under the ground for billions of years have developed a way to breathe through “respiration“, which is to snorkeling, through small protein filaments called nanowires.
When the bacteria were exposed to light, the increased electrical current surprised the researchers because most of the tested bacteria were deep in the soil, far away from the light. Previous studies have shown that when exposed to light, bacteria that produce nanowires grow faster. “No one knows how it happened,” Malvankar said.
In the new study, a Yale team led by postdoctoral researcher Jens Neu and graduate student Catharine Shipps concluded that a metal-containing protein known as cytochrome OmcS — which forms bacterial nanowires — functions as a photoconductor of electrons when biofilms are exposed to light.
“It’s a completely different type of photosynthesis,” Malvankar said. “Here, the light accelerates bacterial respiration due to the rapid transfer of electrons between the nanowires.”
Malvankar’s research lab is investigating how this knowledge of electrical emissions can be used to stimulate the growth of optoelectronics – a branch of photonics that examines devices and systems that detect and control light – and capture methane and global growth climate change.
Source: Yale University
