Tracking the spectroscopic and chromatographic changes of algal derived organic matter in a microbial fuel cell

Hur, Jin; Lee, Bo-Mi; Choi, Kwang-Soon; Min, Booki

Tracking the spectroscopic and chromatographic changes of algal derived organic matter in a microbial fuel cell

2014

Hur, Jin | Lee, Bo-Mi | Choi, Kwang-Soon | Min, Booki

Changes in the characteristics of algae-derived organic matter (AOM) were examined upon the operation of a microbial fuel cell (MFC) using multiple analytical methods. Temporal variations in the UV absorption and fluorescence excitation–emission matrix of the AOM revealed that less condensed humic-like components and large-sized protein-like fluorescent compounds were preferentially decomposed over the period of electricity generation. They also showed that low UV-absorbing extracellular organic matters (EOM) were produced at the end of the operation. SEC chromatograms demonstrated that smaller-sized UV-absorbing components were initially decomposed, followed by the net production of EOM with an intermediate molecular weight. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra showed that proteins and polysaccharides were the two most dominant structures of the AOM in the MFC. Two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy combined with FT-IR provided additional valuable information on the sequential changes of the AOM, which occurred in the order of proteins → acidic functional groups → polysaccharides → amino acids/proteins.

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