Highly selective butanol production by manipulating electron flow via cathodic electro-fermentation.

Butanol production by solventogenic Clostridia shows great potential to combat the energy crisis, but is still challenged by low butanol selectivity and high downstream cost. In this study, a novel cathodic electro-fermentation (CEF) system mediated by methyl viologen (MV) was proposed and sequentially optimized to obtain highly selective butanol production. Under the optimal conditions (-0.60 V cathode potential, 0.50 mM MV, 30 g/L glucose), 7.17 ± 0.55 g/L butanol production were achieved with the yield of 0.32 ± 0.02 g/g. With the supplement of 4 g/L butyric acid as co-substrate, butanol production further improved to 13.14 ± 1.14 g/L with butanol yield and selectivity as high as 0.43 ± 0.01 g/g and 90.44 ± 1.66%, respectively. The polarized electrode enabled the unbalanced fermentation towards butanol formation and MV further inhibited hydrogen production, both of which contributed to the high-level butanol production and selectivity. The MV-mediated CEF system is a promising approach for cost-effective bio-butanol production.

Green synthesis of Ag and Pd nanoparticles for water pollutants treatment.

Silver (Ag) and palladium (Pd) nanoparticles were synthesized via a green synthesis route, which was mediated with the extract of Daucus carota leaves. The morphological, crystalline and structural nature of the synthesized nanoparticles was characterized by UV-Vis spectrophotometer, and TEM, XRD and FT-IR analyses. High antibacterial activities of the prepared Ag and Pd nanoparticles were observed towards different water-borne pathogens of Klebsiella pneumonia, Vibrio cholera and Escherichia coli. The catalytic efficiency of the prepared nanoparticles for the removal of rhodamine 6G (Rh-6G) dye was also evaluated. Nearly 98% of the Rh-6G dye was decolorized by the synthesized Pd nanoparticles within 2 min, and the synthesized Ag nanoparticles took 30 min for 89.4% decolorization. This work provided greener nanocatalysts for pollutant treatment and demonstrated the power of green biosynthesis for metallic nanoparticles.