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Abstract
Microfluidic microbial fuel cells (MMFCs) are promising green power sources for future ultra-small electronic devices. The MMFCs with co-laminar microfluidic structure are superior to other MMFCs according to their low internal resistance and relative high power density. However, the area for interfacial electron transfer between the bacteria and the anode is quite limited in the typical Y-shaped device, which apparently restricts the current generation performance. In this study, we developed a membraneless MMFC with serpentine microchannel to enhance the interfacial electron transfer and promote the power generation of the device. Owing to the merit of laminar flow, the proposed MMFC was working well without any proton exchange membrane (PEM). At the same time, the serpentine microchannel greatly increased the power density. The S-MMFC catalyzed by Shewanella putrefaciens CN32 achieves a peak power density of 360 mW/m2 with the optimal channel configuration and the flow rate of 5 ml/h. Meanwhile, this device possesses much shorter start-up time and much longer duration time at high current plateau than the previous reported MMFCs. The presented MMFC appears promising for biochip technology and extends the scope of microfluidic energy.
Highlights
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are bioelectrochemical devices that convert chemical energy of organic substrates to electrical energy via microorganism metabolism (Wang et al, 2011)
The Nyquist plots of electrochemical impedance spectra analysis suggest that the S-Microfluidic microbial fuel cells (MMFCs) has smaller internal resistance than that of Y-MMFC (Figure 2B)
It is noted that the elongated microchannel with higher HRT would significantly accelerate the start-up process of the MMFC and dramatically increase the internal resistance at the same time
Summary
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are bioelectrochemical devices that convert chemical energy of organic substrates to electrical energy via microorganism metabolism (Wang et al, 2011). Microfluidic MFCs (MMFCs) have been developed for biosensors (Mu et al, 2006; Siu and Chiao, 2008), screening colonies (Li C. et al, 2011; Wang and Su, 2013), or micro power sources (Qian et al, 2009; Choi et al, 2011). The down-sized MFCs possess high surface area to volume ratio and quick response to reactants (ElMekawy et al, 2013). The early MMFCs retain the dual chamber structures with membrane or separator as the macro size devices. The power output performances of these down sized devices are quite poor due to the quite high internal resistance (Qian and Morse, 2011)
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