Issue 12, 2015

Instant power generation from an air-breathing paper and pencil based bacterial bio-fuel cell

Abstract

We present a low-cost, disposable microbial fuel cell fabricated on a paper based platform, having a start-up time of 10 s. The platform deploys ordinary pencil strokes for graphite electrode deposition. The device uses a membrane-less design in a one-time injection (OTI) mode or a continuous capillary driven flow mode (CPF), where oxygen from the atmosphere is used up at the cathode for water formation, leading to the generation of bioelectricity. The performance of the fuel cell is evaluated using two bacterial strains, namely, Pseudomonas aeruginosa IIT BT SS1 and Shewanella putrefaciens. This flexible device is shown to retain bacteria for a period of at least one hour, resulting in the generation of almost 0.4 V using P. aeruginosa and a maximum current of 18 μA using S. putrefaciens without the use of any additional catalysts.

Graphical abstract: Instant power generation from an air-breathing paper and pencil based bacterial bio-fuel cell

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
20 Feb 2015
Accepted
08 May 2015
First published
13 May 2015

Lab Chip, 2015,15, 2580-2583

Author version available

Instant power generation from an air-breathing paper and pencil based bacterial bio-fuel cell

R. Veerubhotla, A. Bandopadhyay, D. Das and S. Chakraborty, Lab Chip, 2015, 15, 2580 DOI: 10.1039/C5LC00211G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements