The power of glove: Soft microbial fuel cell for low-power electronics

Winfield, Jonathan; Chambers, Lily D.; Stinchcombe, Andrew; Rossiter, Jonathan; Ieropoulos, Ioannis

Abstract

A novel, soft microbial fuel cell (MFC) has been constructed using the finger-piece of a standard laboratory natural rubber latex glove. The natural rubber serves as structural and proton exchange material whilst untreated carbon veil is used for the anode. A soft, conductive, synthetic latex cathode is developed that coats the outside of the glove. This inexpensive, lightweight reactor can without any external power supply, start up and energise a power management system (PMS), which steps-up the MFC output (0.06-0.17 V) to practical levels for operating electronic devices (>3 V). The MFC is able to operate for up to 4 days on just 2 mL of feedstock (synthetic tryptone yeast extract) without any cathode hydration. The MFC responds immediately to changes in fuel-type when the introduction of urine accelerates the cycling times (35 vs. 50 min for charge/discharge) of the MFC and PMS. Following starvation periods of up to 60 h at 0 mV the MFC is able to cold start the PMS simply with the addition of 2 mL fresh feedstock. These findings demonstrate that cheap MFCs can be developed as sole power sources and in conjunction with advancements in ultra-low power electronics, can practically operate small electrical devices.© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 22, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Oct 30, 2013
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Feb 11, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: May 11, 2016
• Journal: Journal of Power Sources
• Print ISSN: 0378-7753
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 249
• Pages: 327-332
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.10.096
• Keywords: microbial fuel cell, natural rubber, power management system, urine, conductive latex, energy harvesting
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/820654
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.10.096
• Contract Date: May 11, 2016