Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Science. 2021 Sep 17;373(6561):1336-1340. doi: 10.1126/science.abf3427. Epub 2021 Sep 16.
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can directly convert the chemical energy stored in organic matter to electricity and are of considerable interest for power generation and wastewater treatment. However, the current MFCs typically exhibit unsatisfactorily low power densities that are largely limited by the sluggish transmembrane and extracellular electron-transfer processes. Here, we report a rational strategy to boost the charge-extraction efficiency in MFCs substantially by introducing transmembrane and outer-membrane silver nanoparticles. The resulting -silver MFCs deliver a maximum current density of 3.85 milliamperes per square centimeter, power density of 0.66 milliwatts per square centimeter, and single-cell turnover frequency of 8.6 × 10 per second, which are all considerably higher than those of the best MFCs reported to date. Additionally, the hybrid MFCs feature an excellent fuel-utilization efficiency, with a coulombic efficiency of 81%.
微生物燃料电池 (MFC) 可以将有机物质中储存的化学能直接转化为电能，对于发电和废水处理具有重要意义。然而，目前的 MFC 通常表现出不尽如人意的低功率密度，这主要受到跨膜和细胞外电子转移过程缓慢的限制。在这里，我们报告了一种通过引入跨膜和外膜银纳米粒子来大幅提高 MFC 电荷提取效率的合理策略。所得到的 -银 MFC 提供了 3.85 毫安每平方厘米的最大电流密度、0.66 毫瓦每平方厘米的功率密度和每秒 8.6×10 的单个细胞周转率，均明显高于迄今为止报道的最佳 MFC。此外，混合 MFC 具有出色的燃料利用率，库仑效率为 81%。
