title: Self-powered supercapacitive microbial fuel cell: The ultimate way of boosting and harvesting power.
abstract: In this work, for the first time, we demonstrate a supercapacitive microbial fuel cell which integrates the energy harvesting function of a microbial fuel cell (MFC) with the high-power operation of an internal supercapacitor. The pursued strategies are: (i) the increase of the cell voltage by the use of high potential cathodes like bilirubin oxidase (BOx) or iron-aminoantipyrine (Fe-AAPyr); (ii) the use of an additional capacitive electrode (additional electrode, AdE) which is short-circuited with the MFC cathode and coupled with the MFC anode (MFC-AdE). The high working potential of BOx cathode and the low impedances of the additional capacitive electrode and the MFC anode permitted to achieve up to 19 mW (84.4 Wm(-2), 152 Wm(-3)), the highest power value ever reported for MFCs. Exploiting the supercapacitive properties of the MFC electrodes allows the system to be simpler, cheaper and more efficient without additional electronics management added with respect to an MFC/external supercapacitor coupling. The use of the AdE makes it possible to decouple energy and power and to achieve recharge times in the order of few seconds making the system appealing for practical applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Center for Micro-Engineered Materials (CMEM), University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Santoro
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry "Giacomo Ciamician", Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Via Selmi, 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy. Electronic address: francesca.soavi@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Soavi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Center for Micro-Engineered Materials (CMEM), University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
authors.forename: Alexey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Serov
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry "Giacomo Ciamician", Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Via Selmi, 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Catia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arbizzani
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Center for Micro-Engineered Materials (CMEM), University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. Electronic address: plamen@unm.edu.
authors.forename: Plamen
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Atanassov
mesh_terms: D000675:Ampyrone / Q000737:chemistry; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D004560:Electricity; D004566:Electrodes; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry; D044925:Oxidoreductases Acting on CH-CH Group Donors / Q000737:chemistry; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000675:Ampyrone; D007501:Iron; D044925:Oxidoreductases Acting on CH-CH Group Donors; C042401:bilirubin oxidase; D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Additional electrode; EDLC; High-current/power; Microbial fuel cell; Supercapacitor