Salt-Induced Self-Assembly of Bacteria on Nanowire Arrays

Studying bacteria–nanostructure interactions is crucial to gaining controllable interfacing of biotic and abiotic components in advanced biotechnologies. For bioelectrochemical systems, tunable cell–electrode architectures offer a path toward improving performance and discovering emergent properties. As such, Sporomusa ovata cells cultured on vertical silicon nanowire arrays formed filamentous cells and aligned parallel to the nanowires when grown in increasing ionic concentrations. Here, we propose a model describing the kinetic and the thermodynamic driving forces of bacteria–nanowire interactions.