Extracellular electron uptake (EEU) is the ability of microbes to take up electrons from solid-phase conductive substances such as metal oxides. EEU is performed by prevalent phototrophic bacterial genera, but the electron transfer pathways and the physiological electron sinks are poorly understood. Here we show that electrons enter the photosynthetic electron transport chain during EEU in the phototrophic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1. Cathodic electron flow is also correlated with a highly reducing intracellular redox environment. We show that reducing equivalents are used for carbon dioxide (CO2) fixation, which is the primary electron sink. Deletion of the genes encoding ruBisCO (the CO2-fixing enzyme of the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle) leads to a 90% reduction in EEU. This work shows that phototrophs can directly use solid-phase conductive substances for electron transfer, energy transduction, and CO2 fixation.

The two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide nanosheet-carbon composite is an attractive material for energy storage because of its high Faradaic activity, unique nanoconstruction and electronic properties. In this work, a facile one step preparation of a molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheet-graphene (MoS2/G) composite with the in situ reduction of graphene oxide is reported. The structure, morphology and composition of the pure MoS2 and composites were comparatively analyzed by various characterization techniques. The electrochemical performance of the pure MoS2, graphene oxide and the MoS2/G composite electrode materials was evaluated by cyclic voltammogram, galvanostatic charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The MoS2/G composite showed a higher specific capacitance (270 F g(-1) at a current density of 0.1 A g(-1)) compared to the pure MoS2 (162 F g(-1)) in a neutral aqueous electrolyte. Moreover, the energy density of the composite electrode is also higher (12.5 Wh kg(-1)) with a high power density (2500 W kg(-1)) compared to the pure MoS2. In addition, the MoS2/G composite electrode showed excellent cyclic stability even after 1000 cycles. The enhancement in specific capacitance, excellent cyclic stability and high energy density of the composite electrode are mainly due to the interconnected conductive network of the composite as well as the synergetic effect of the pure MoS2 and graphene. The experimental results demonstrated that the MoS2/G composite is a promising electrode material for high-performance supercapacitors.

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Some anoxygenic phototrophs use soluble iron, insoluble iron minerals (such as rust), or their proxies (poised electrodes) as electron donors for photosynthesis. However, the underlying electron uptake mechanisms are not well established. Here, we show that these phototrophs use a protein complex made of an outer membrane porin and a periplasmic decaheme cytochrome (electron transfer protein) to harvest electrons from both soluble iron and poised electrodes. This complex has two unique characteristics: (i) it lacks an extracellular cytochrome c, and (ii) the periplasmic decaheme cytochrome c undergoes proteolytic cleavage to produce a functional electron transfer protein. These characteristics are conserved in phototrophs harboring homologous proteins.

Nanoparticle single-phase nickel sulfides such as NiS, NiS 2 , Ni 3 S 4 , and Ni 7 S 6 were prepared from elemental sulfur and nickel nitrate hexahydrate, using a temperature-controlled precursor injection method. The initial ratio of the concentrations of the sources was used to control the size and phase of the final product.Phase control was confirmed using X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The synthesized nickel sulfide phases, which had metallic characteristics, were used to study the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol. The results showed that the catalytic activity of the NiS nanoparticles in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol was higher than those of the other nickel sulfide phases. In addition, the nanocrystals showed good separation ability and reusability for reduction of 4-nitrophenol.