Santoro C, Walter XA, Soavi F, Greenman J, Ieropoulos I. Air-breathing cathode self-powered supercapacitive microbial fuel cell with human urine as electrolyte.
Electrochim Acta 2020;
353:136530. [PMID:
32884155 PMCID:
PMC7430050 DOI:
10.1016/j.electacta.2020.136530]
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Abstract
In this work, a membraneless microbial fuel cell (MFC) with an empty volume of 1.5 mL, fed continuously with hydrolysed urine, was tested in supercapacitive mode (SC-MFC). In order to enhance the power output, a double strategy was used: i) a double cathode was added leading to a decrease in the equivalent series resistance (ESR); ii) the apparent capacitance was boosted up by adding capacitive features on the anode electrode. Galvanostatic (GLV) discharges were performed at different discharge currents. The results showed that both strategies were successful obtaining a maximum power output of 1.59 ± 0.01 mW (1.06 ± 0.01 mW mL−1) at pulse time of 0.01 s and 0.57 ± 0.01 mW (0.38 ± 0.01 mW mL−1) at pulse time of 2 s. The highest energy delivered at ipulse equal to 2 mA was 3.3 ± 0.1 mJ. The best performing SC-MFCs were then connected in series and parallel and tested through GLV discharges. As the power output was similar, the connection in parallel allowed to roughly doubling the current produced. Durability tests over ≈5.6 days showed certain stability despite a light overall decrease.
Air-breathing microbial fuel cell was tested in supercapacitive mode.
A double cathode addition lead to a decrease in ohmic resistance.
Apparent capacitance was boosted up by adding capacitive features.
Maximum power output of 1.59 mW (1.06 mW mL−1) was reached at tpulse 0.01s.
Series and parallel connections improved the galvanostatic discharges.
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