A microfabricated paper-based microbial fuel cell

Author

Fraiwan, Arwa ; Mukherjee, Sayan ; Sundermier, S. ; Choi, Soon-Mi

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., State Univ. of New York-Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

20-24 Jan. 2013

Firstpage

809

Lastpage

812

Abstract

We report a paper-based microbial fuel cell (MFC) generating a maximum power of 5.5 μW/cm². The MFC features (1) a paper-based proton exchange membrane by infiltrating sulfonated sodium polystyrene sulfonate and (2) micro-fabricated paper chambers by patterning hydrophobic barriers of photoresist. Once a sample was added to the device, a current of 74 μA generated without any startup time. This paper-based MFC has the advantages of ease of use, low production cost, and high portability. The voltage produced was increased by 1.9× when two MFC devices were linked in series while operating lifetime was significantly enhanced in parallel.

Keywords

microbial fuel cells; microfabrication; paper; MFC devices; current 74 muA; hydrophobic barriers; microfabricated paper chambers; microfabricated paper-based microbial fuel cell; paper-based MFC; paper-based proton exchange membrane; photoresist; sulfonated sodium polystyrene sulfonate; Anodes; Carbon; Cathodes; Conferences; Fuel cells; Microorganisms; Protons;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2013 IEEE 26th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Taipei

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-5654-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2013.6474366

Filename

6474366