Extracellular electron transfer routes in microbiologically influenced corrosion of X80 steel by Bacillus licheniformis

Bacillus licheniformis can take up electrons from X80 steel for nitrate reduction and accelerate corrosion. In this work, the routes B. licheniformis adopts for extracellular electron transfer (EET) were revealed using electrochemical tests, fluorescence staining, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and weight loss tests, and their kinetics were also analyzed in detail. The results showed that B. licheniformis can take up electrons from steel surface via three routes: direct electron transfer by cytochromes, direct electron transfer by flavin-bound cytochromes and mediated electron transfer by diffusible flavin. B. licheniformis itself can only secrete traces of riboflavin which are mainly bound to the surface cytochromes assisting electron transfer. Adding flavins can increase the bound content, and with the binding sites of cytochrome becoming saturated the rest of flavins will mediate electron transfer through diffusion even more efficiently than the bound.