Open AccessA solvent-free microbial-activated air cathode battery paper platform made with pencil-traced graphite electrodes
Author(s) -
Seung Ho Lee,
Ju Yeon Ban,
Chung-Hun Oh,
Hun-Kuk Park,
Samjin Choi
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/srep28588
Subject(s) - shewanella oneidensis , microbial fuel cell , cathode , anode , materials science , graphite , electrochemistry , battery (electricity) , electrode , nanotechnology , fabrication , chemical engineering , optoelectronics , chemistry , composite material , genetics , bacteria , biology , engineering , medicine , power (physics) , physics , alternative medicine , quantum mechanics , pathology
We present the fabrication of an ultra-low cost, disposable, solvent-free air cathode all-paper microbial fuel cell (MFC) that does not utilize any chemical treatments. The anode and cathode were fabricated by depositing graphite particles by drawing them on paper with a pencil (four strokes). Hydrophobic parchment paper was used as a proton exchange membrane (PEM) to allow only H + to pass. Air cathode MFC technology, where O 2 was used as an electron acceptor, was implemented on the paper platform. The bioelectric current was generated by an electrochemical process involving the redox couple of microbial-activated extracellular electron transferred electrons, PEM-passed H + , and O 2 in the cathode. A fully micro-integrated pencil-traced MFC showed a fast start-time, producing current within 10 s after injection of bacterial cells. A single miniaturized all-paper air cathode MFC generated a maximum potential of 300 mV and a maximum current of 11 μA during 100 min after a single injection of Shewanella oneidensis . The micro-fabricated solvent-free air cathode all-paper MFC generated a power of 2,270 nW (5.68 mW/m 2 ). The proposed solvent-free air cathode paper-based MFC device could be used for environmentally-friendly energy storage as well as in single-use medical power supplies that use organic matter.