TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-powered supercapacitive microbial fuel cell: The ultimate way of boosting and harvesting power
AU - Santoro, C.
AU - Soavi, Francesca
AU - Serov, Alexey
AU - Arbizzani, Catia
AU - Atanassov, Plamen
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - In this work, for the first time, we demonstrate a supercapacitive microbial fuel cell which integrates the energy harvesting function of a microbial fuel cell (MFC) with the high-power operation of an internal supercapacitor. The pursued strategies are: (i) the increase of the cell voltage by the use of high potential cathodes like bilirubin oxidase (BOx) or iron–aminoantipyrine (Fe–AAPyr); (ii) the use of an additional capacitive electrode (additional electrode, AdE) which is short-circuited with the MFC cathode and coupled with the MFC anode (MFC-AdE). The high working potential of BOx cathode and the low im- pedances of the additional capacitive electrode and the MFC anode permitted to achieve up to 19 mW (84.4 W m ! 2, 152 W m ! 3), the highest power value ever reported for MFCs. Exploiting the super- capacitive properties of the MFC electrodes allows the system to be simpler, cheaper and more efficient without additional electronics management added with respect to an MFC/external supercapacitor coupling. The use of the AdE makes it possible to decouple energy and power and to achieve recharge times in the order of few seconds making the system appealing for practical applications.
AB - In this work, for the first time, we demonstrate a supercapacitive microbial fuel cell which integrates the energy harvesting function of a microbial fuel cell (MFC) with the high-power operation of an internal supercapacitor. The pursued strategies are: (i) the increase of the cell voltage by the use of high potential cathodes like bilirubin oxidase (BOx) or iron–aminoantipyrine (Fe–AAPyr); (ii) the use of an additional capacitive electrode (additional electrode, AdE) which is short-circuited with the MFC cathode and coupled with the MFC anode (MFC-AdE). The high working potential of BOx cathode and the low im- pedances of the additional capacitive electrode and the MFC anode permitted to achieve up to 19 mW (84.4 W m ! 2, 152 W m ! 3), the highest power value ever reported for MFCs. Exploiting the super- capacitive properties of the MFC electrodes allows the system to be simpler, cheaper and more efficient without additional electronics management added with respect to an MFC/external supercapacitor coupling. The use of the AdE makes it possible to decouple energy and power and to achieve recharge times in the order of few seconds making the system appealing for practical applications.
U2 - 10.1016/j.bios.2015.11.026
DO - 10.1016/j.bios.2015.11.026
M3 - Article
SN - 0956-5663
VL - 78
SP - 229
EP - 235
JO - Biosensors and Bioelectronics
JF - Biosensors and Bioelectronics
ER -
