Electrochemical deprotonation of phosphate on stainless steel

Voltammetric experiments performed in phosphate buffer at constant pH 8.0 on platinum and stainless steel revealed clear reduction currents, which were correlated to the concentrations of phosphate. On the basis of the reactions proposed previously, a model was elaborated, assuming that both H2PO4 and HPO4 2 underwent cathodic deprotonation, and including the acid–base equilibriums. A kinetic model was derived by analogy with the equations generally used for hydrogen evolution. Numerical fitting of the experimental data confirmed that the phosphate species may act as an efficient catalyst of hydrogen evolution via electrochemical deprotonation. This reaction may introduce an unexpected reversible pathway of hydrogen formation in the mechanisms of anaerobic corrosion. The possible new insights offered by the electrochemical deprotonation of phosphate in microbially influenced corrosion was finally discussed

First attempts in bioelectrochemical engineering

Many of the most important physiological processes are based on oxidoreduction chains involving numerous successive enzyme-catalyzed oxydoreduction reactions. Nevertheless, these reactions have not yet been exploited to develop synthesis processes, although the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries have a great need of such processes, which could achieve specific transformations with very high selectivity. On the one hand, the paper gives a concise account of the needs of the fine chemical industry and, on the other hand, a description of various attempts made to design electrodes and reactors in order to scale-up bioelectrochemical reactions to the preparative scale