ArticleNature communications2024
Growth of electroautotrophic microorganisms using hydrovoltaic energy through natural water evaporation.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Microbial autotrophy driven by extracellular electrons generated from mechanical forces via flexoelectricity.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Life Cells for future energy systems: adaptation, evolution and exploration.National science review · 2026Review
- Bio-hydrovoltaic technology: advancing from non-living to living hydrovoltaic systems.National science review · 2025Review
- Ion transport-triggered rapid flexible hydrovoltaic sensing.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Powerful Tribocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange Solutions with Concentrations as High as 100 mg/L by BaTiONanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Humin oxidation drives microbial dehalogenation in oligotrophic environments.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Anoxygenic photoautotrophy driven by humus and microplastics in a photosynthetic bacterium.ISME communications · 2025Article
- Bio-energy-powered microfluidic devices.Biomicrofluidics · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
It has been previously shown that devices based on microbial biofilms can generate hydrovoltaic energy from water evaporation. However, the potential of hydrovoltaic energy as an energy source for microbial growth has remained unexplored. Here, we show that the electroautotrophic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris can directly utilize evaporation-induced hydrovoltaic electrons for growth within biofilms through extracellular electron uptake, with a strong reliance on carbon fixation coupled with nitrate reduction. We obtained similar results with two other electroautotrophic bacterial species. Although the energy conversion efficiency for microbial growth based on hydrovoltaic energy is low compared to other processes such as photosynthesis, we hypothesize that hydrovoltaic energy may potentially contribute to microbial survival and growth in energy-limited environments, given the ubiquity of microbial biofilms and water evaporation conditions.
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Registered trials
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