Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), particularly the perfluorinated ones, are recalcitrant to biodegradation. By integrating an enrichment culture of reductive defluorination with biocompatible electrodes for the electrochemical process, a deeper defluorination of a C 6 -perfluorinated unsaturated PFAS was achieved compared to the biological or electrochemical system alone. Two synergies in the bioelectrochemical system were identified: i) The in-series microbial-electrochemical defluorination and ii) the electrochemically enabled microbial defluorination of intermediates. These synergies at the material–microbe interfaces surpassed the limitation of microbial defluorination and further turned the biotransformation end products into less fluorinated products, which could be less toxic and more biodegradable in the environment. This material–microbe hybrid system brings opportunities in the bioremediation of PFAS driven by renewable electricity and warrants future research on mechanistic understanding of defluorinating and electroactive microorganisms at the material–microbe interface for system optimizations.

中文翻译：

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协同材料-微生物界面实现更深层次的厌氧脱氟


全氟烷基物质和多氟烷基物质 (PFAS)，特别是全氟烷基物质，难以生物降解。通过将还原脱氟的富集培养物与用于电化学过程的生物相容性电极相结合，可以对 C 进行更深层次的脱氟。 6 -与单独的生物或电化学系统相比，实现了全氟化不饱和PFAS。确定了生物电化学系统中的两种协同作用：i）串联微生物电化学脱氟和ii）中间体的电化学微生物脱氟。这些材料-微生物界面上的协同作用超越了微生物脱氟的限制，并进一步将生物转化最终产物转化为氟化含量较低的产品，这些产品的毒性较低，在环境中更容易生物降解。这种材料-微生物混合系统为可再生电力驱动的 PFAS 生物修复带来了机遇，并保证了未来对材料-微生物界面上的脱氟和电活性微生物的机理理解的研究，以实现系统优化。