A micro-sized microbial fuel cell with electrochemical sensing functionality

Integration of electrochemical analytical functionality into a micro-sized microbial fuel cell is demonstrated. Screen-printed carbon ink based working (anode) and counter (cathode) electrodes and Ag/AgCl ink based reference electrode were deployed for sensing. Using such three-electrode configuration, in-situ cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were successfully performed to study the behavior of microbial electron transfer at the anode and to evaluate electrochemical properties of the MFC. In this work, coupling of electrochemical studies to the MFC platform has provided valuable information leading to a quantitative understanding of bacterial redox potential mass transport and the electrode/bacteria electron transfer kinetics.