title: A novel minimally invasive method for monitoring oxygen in microbial fuel cells.
abstract: Oxygen availability is a potential rate-limiting step in the bioelectrochemical process catalyzed by microbes in microbial fuel cells (MFC). Determination of oxygen availability using a minimally invasive oxygen sensor is advantageous in terms of ease of usage, maintenance and cost-effectiveness as compared to using conventional probe-type oxygen sensors. The utility of this method is substantiated by using this sensor to demonstrate the relationship between oxygen availability and current density. 10 % drop in oxygen concentration resulted in a concomitant drop in current density by about 36 %, further establishing the criticality of monitoring oxygen levels in the MFC. The detachable sensor membrane of the minimally invasive sensor confers multiple advantages. The novel method would enable real-time monitoring of oxygen in MFCs, simplify process optimization and validation and more importantly, provide an impetus for development of more efficient MFC designs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi, 515134 Andhra Pradesh, India. asvishwanathan@sssihl.edu.in
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Vishwanathan
authors.forename: Govind
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Siva Sankara Sai
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D002623:Chemistry Techniques, Analytical / Q000379:methods*; D004560:Electricity; D010100:Oxygen / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen