细菌居然可以为手机充电?

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在弗吉尼亚州蚝湾的污泥中有一种名为Rhodoferax Ferrireducens的微生物，人们发现该微生物将糖分解成电时可直接把电子传输到电极上。"从一块糖中你就可以获得足以使手机电池待机４天的电量，"研究人员德里克·洛弗利说。一杯糖中含有的能量足以使一个60瓦的灯泡点亮17小时。

对于能源稀缺的今天，能为手机充电的细菌无疑为节约能源提供了新的方向。

A microbe called Rhodoferax Ferrireducens，found in the mud at Oyster Bay，Virginia，has been discovered to transfer electrons directly onto an electrode as it metabolizes sugar into electricity．

"You can harvest enough electricity to power a cell phone battery for about four days from a sugar cube，"researcher Derek Lovley says．"A cup of sugar contains enough power to light a 60－watt light bulb for about 17 hours．"This process is accomplished at an astonishing 80% efficiency and produces only carbon dioxide gas as a byproduct．Previous similar reactions progressed at only 1% efficiency and required toxic metallic mediator chemicals to assist，avoided here because the bacteria grows happily as a slime colony directly on the electrode plates．

The bioreaction was found to work not only with glucose but also with the fruit sugar fructose，with sucrose（found in sugar cane and sugar beet）and even xylose，a sugary byproduct of wood and straw．In addition，the bacterium is rugged and stable，able to grow at temperatures ranging from four to 30℃，with 25℃the optimum．If engineering obstacles can beovercome and manufacturing techniques devised，a power cell based on this process could one day be as compact as household batteries