Perspective use of direct human blood as an energy source in air-breathing hybrid microfluidic fuel cells

Déctor, A.; Escalona-Villalpando, Ricardo A.; Dector, Diana; Vallejo-Becerra, Vanessa; Chávez-Ramírez, A.U.; Arriaga, L.G.; Ledesma‐García, J.

doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.04.089

Cited by 40 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…With the electrodes within the same layer as the microfluidic channels and manifolds, this strategy leads to low profile cells which can be easily integrated into 'onchip' applications such as sensors, a feature which distinguishes them from conventional MEA based cells [118]. This has made this fabrication style particularly favoured by research groups investigating biofuels such as glucose for potential biological or point of care medical applications [82], [83], [85], [111], [113], [116], [119], [120]. In general, this single-layer device platform has spawned many derivative studies [48], [50], [55], [76], [77], [80]- [83], [85], [113], [119]- [123] due to its simplicity of construction and the possibility for direct visualization of the co-laminar interface quality and reactant conversion through the clear PDMS channel substrate.…”

Section: Research Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Co-laminar flow cells for electrochemical energy conversion

Goulet

Kjeang

2014

Journal of Power Sources

103

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A recently developed class of electrochemical cell based on co-laminar flow of reactants through porous electrodes is investigated. New architectures are designed and assessed for fuel recirculation and rechargeable battery operation.Extensive characterization of cells is performed to determine most sources of voltage loss during operation. To this end, a specialized flow cell technique is developed to mitigate mass transport limitations and measure kinetic rates of reaction on flow-through porous electrodes. This technique is used in in conjunction with cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to evaluate different treatments for enhancing the rates of vanadium redox reactions on carbon paper electrodes. It is determined that surface area enhancements are the most effective way for increasing redox reaction rates and thus a novel in situ flowing deposition method is conceived to achieve this objective at minimal cost. It is demonstrated that flowing deposition of carbon nanotubes can increase the electrochemical surface area of carbon paper by over an order of magnitude. It is also demonstrated that flowing deposition can be achieved dynamically during cell operation, leading to considerably improved kinetics and mass transport properties. To take full advantage of this deposition method, the total ohmic resistance of the cell is considerably reduced through design optimization with reduced channel width, integration of current collectors and reduction of reactant concentration. With electrodes enhanced by dynamic flowing deposition the cell presented in this study demonstrates nearly a fourfold improvement in power density over the baseline design.Producing more than twice the power density of the leading co-laminar flow cell without the use of catalysts or elevated temperatures and pressures, this cell provides a lowcost standard for further research into system scale-up and implementation of co-laminar flow cell technology. More generally, the experimental technique and deposition method developed in this work are expected to find broader use in other fields of electrochemical energy conversion. am also very grateful to my graduate colleagues at SFU and friends in FCRel, with a special mention to Omar in particular, for all the pleasant conversations and good times.I wish there had been more.Last but not least, I'd like to acknowledge all the family and friends I was unable to spend quality time with due to this work. I look forward to seeing you all again.vi Tables Table 1. for their higher specific energy and energy density [6]. For the same reasons, the lower power (< 100 W) market which is driven by portable consumer electronics, is currently 2 dominated by closed cell lithium ion batteries in particular [7]. As these batteries reach their limits and fail to keep up with the energy requirements of modern electronics, micro fuel cells with passively pumped higher energy density liquid reactants such as methanol have been suggested as a potential replacement [8].Regardless...

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Section: Research Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Co-laminar flow cells for electrochemical energy conversion

Goulet

Kjeang

2014

Journal of Power Sources

103

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“…With origins in living systems, enzymatic catalysts operate well in physiological temperature and pH, which makes them an attractive option as a possible implantable power source [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Several examples of biofuel cells operating under such conditions have been reported, including some that operate in biological fluids [11][12][13][14][15]. The trends in power output and stability for biofuel cells are clearly positive, but operational stability remains a significant limitation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Carbon Nanotube Connectivity and Surface Activity in a Contact Lens Biofuel Cell

Reid

Jones

Hickey

et al. 2016

Electrochimica Acta

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Biofuel cells are often limited by the current density produced by the cathode; this is especially true when such fuel cells are scaled down to fit a desired application. Herein, we created a computational model to examine the effects of carbon nanotube (CNT) connectivity and surface activity on the current density of a biofuel cell cathode. The model was motivated by the creation of a novel contact lens biofuel cell that, although more stable and biocompatible than previously reported designs, was cathode limited.The device produced a maximum current density of 22 ± 4 µA cm -2 , and a maximum power density of 2.4 ± 0.9 µW cm -2 (at 0.163 V) with an open-circuit voltage of 0.44 ± 0.08 V. Computational results showed that in a Nafion film containing 1.6% CNTs by volume, less than 20% of the CNT fibers were connected to the electrode, assuming a planar electrode. The simulations predicted that a three-fold increase in CNT loading would lead to a roughly two-fold increase in total CNT connectivity. The simulations further estimated that for the CNTs connected to the electrode, only 21% of their sidewalls were contributing to cathodic current, meaning that the remaining surfaces were not electrochemically active. Given the low bilirubin oxidase (BOD) enzyme surface concentration, which was experimentally found to be 1.24 x 10 -13 mol cm -2 , it is likely that large portions of the CNT surfaces are not connected to enzymes. This result validates the push by the research community to increase BOD and laccase adsorption/orientation to CNT surfaces.

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“…Such OCPs are comparable to the single-compartment BFCs,although the currentand power densitieswere 1755 ± 51μA cm -2 and 188 ± 13μW cm -2 ,with a decrease at higher concentrations.The higher current densityreached with the µBFCis mainly due to the air-breathing system, because the diffusion coefficient of oxygen in air (0.2 cm s -1 )is higher than in aqueous media (2 x 10 -5 cm 2 s -1 ) andthe oxygen concentration available in the air-breathing μBFC is higher and constant [19]. Previously, we have improved the performance ofglucoseμBFCs by decreasingthe concentration of both supporting electrolytesto 0.05 M [20].In order to improve the performance of the lactate μBFCs, we employed this same strategy. With these changes to the electrolyte concentrationweobtained an OCP of 0.65 ± 0.03 V, achieving a maximum OCP of 0.67 V using 20 and 40 mM of lactate.…”

Section: Evaluation Of An Air-breathing Lactate/o 2 Microfluidic Biofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the performance of lactate/oxygen biofuel cells using a microfluidic design

Escalona-Villalpando

Reid

Milton

et al. 2017

Journal of Power Sources

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Lactate/O 2 biofuel cells (BFC) can have high theoretical energy densities due to high solubility and high fuel energy density; however,they are rarely studiedin comparison to glucoseBFCs. In this paper, lactate oxidase(LOx) was coupled with a ferrocene-based redox polymer(dimethylferrocene-modified linear polyethylenimine, FcMe 2 -LPEI) as the bioanode and laccase (Lc) connected to pyrene-anthracene modified carbon nanotubes (PyrAn-MWCNT) to facilitate the direct electron transfer (DET) at the biocathode.Both electrodes were evaluated in two BFC configurations using different concentrations of lactate, in the range found in sweat (0-40mM).Asingle compartment BFC evaluated at pH 5.6provided anopen circuit potential (OCP)of 0.68 V with a power density of 61.2 μW cm -2 .On the other hand, a microfluidic BFC operating under the same conditions resulted in an OCP of 0.67 V, although an increase in the power density, increasing to 305 μW cm -2 , was © 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the Elsevier user license http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/observed. Upon changingthe pH to 7.4in only the anolyte,its performance was further increased to 0.73 V and 404 μW cm -2 , respectively. This workreports the first microfluidic lactate/oxygen enzymatic BFC andshows the importance of microfluidic flow inhigh performing BFCswhere lactate is utilized as the fuel and O 2 is the final electron acceptor.

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Perspective use of direct human blood as an energy source in air-breathing hybrid microfluidic fuel cells

Cited by 40 publications

References 27 publications

Co-laminar flow cells for electrochemical energy conversion

Co-laminar flow cells for electrochemical energy conversion

Modeling Carbon Nanotube Connectivity and Surface Activity in a Contact Lens Biofuel Cell

Improving the performance of lactate/oxygen biofuel cells using a microfluidic design

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