Silver nanoparticles boost charge-extraction efficiency in Shewanella microbial fuel cells

Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 373 (6561) ◽  
pp. 1336-1340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bocheng Cao ◽  
Zipeng Zhao ◽  
Lele Peng ◽  
Hui-Ying Shiu ◽  
Mengning Ding ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
S. A. Abbasi ◽  
Tabassum Abbasi ◽  
Pratiksha Patnaik

Studies are presented in the context of the past attempts at finding nanocatalysts that can boost the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) ? in terms of waste treatment and energy generation. Given the great potential of biomimetically synthesized nanoparticles (BMNPs) in providing less expensive and more environmentally friendly alternatives to NPs synthesized by physical and chemical methods, as well as a near-total lack of previous work in this area, the current research was undertaken. Effect of gold and silver nanoparticles (NPs), synthesized biomimetically using five freely available weeds, was assessed as catalysts in the MFCs. In all cases, the nanoparticles were seen to enhance the coulombic efficiency (reflective of the reduction in the waste’s organic carbon load), maximum attainable power density, and overall energy yield of the MFCs by >200% relative to the uncatalyzed MFCs. Gold nanoparticles were more effective than silver nanoparticles by ? 20%. The results reveal that biomimetically synthesized NPs can be highly effective in reducing the operational costs as well as ecological footprints of MFCs and further work should be focused on NPs of non-precious metals.


Fuels ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-178
Author(s):  
Marzia Quaglio ◽  
Daniyal Ahmed ◽  
Giulia Massaglia ◽  
Adriano Sacco ◽  
Valentina Margaria ◽  
...  

Sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) are energy harvesting devices where the anode is buried inside marine sediment, while the cathode stays in an aerobic environment on the surface of the water. To apply this SCMFC as a power source, it is crucial to have an efficient power management system, leading to development of an effective energy harvesting technique suitable for such biological devices. In this work, we demonstrate an effective method to improve power extraction with SMFCs based on anodes alternation. We have altered the setup of a traditional SMFC to include two anodes working with the same cathode. This setup is compared with a traditional setup (control) and a setup that undergoes intermittent energy harvesting, establishing the improvement of energy collection using the anodes alternation technique. Control SMFC produced an average power density of 6.3 mW/m2 and SMFC operating intermittently produced 8.1 mW/m2. On the other hand, SMFC operating using the anodes alternation technique produced an average power density of 23.5 mW/m2. These results indicate the utility of the proposed anodes alternation method over both the control and intermittent energy harvesting techniques. The Anode Alternation can also be viewed as an advancement of the intermittent energy harvesting method.


2021 ◽  
Vol 775 ◽  
pp. 145904
Author(s):  
Jaecheul Yu ◽  
Younghyun Park ◽  
Evy Widyaningsih ◽  
Sunah Kim ◽  
Younggy Kim ◽  
...  

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