Membraneless microfluidic microbial fuel cell for rapid detection of electrochemical activity of microorganism

Abstract

A membraneless microfluidic microbial fuel cell (μMFC) for rapid detection of microorganism electroactivity is demonstrated in this study. Owing to the merit of laminar flow, the proposed μMFC has well-separated anode and cathode without applying proton exchange membrane. The highest open circuit voltages (OCVs) produced by different anodal solutions: fresh medium, inactivated and untreated microflora, were 102, 131, and 246. mV, respectively. These results show that the membraneless μMFC is capable of identifying the electric potential resulting from the imbalanced compositions between two streams (29. mV) and from the electrochemical activity of microflora (115. mV). When samples obtained along a batch cycle of H-type MFC were tested, the membraneless μMFC produced similar OCVs with those from the H-type MFC. In conclusion, the proposed μMFC has comparable abilities in detecting electroactivity with the conventional H-type MFC; moreover, it can distinguish the source of collected electricity. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.