Development of carbon nanotubes and nanofluids based microbial fuel cell

In the present study, the construction of a novel microbial fuel cell (MFC) using novel electron mediators and carbon nanotube (CNT) based electrodes has been discussed. The novel mediators are nanofluids which were prepared by dispersing nanocrystalline platinum anchored carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in water. A cation selective membrane separates the two chambers of the MFC with hexacyanoferrate as the ultimate electron acceptor in the cathode compartment. Performance of the new Escherichia coli based MFC was compared to the previously reported E. coli based microbial fuel cells with Neutral Red (NR) and Methylene Blue (MB) electron mediators. The performance of the MFC using CNT based nanofluids and CNT based electrodes has been compared against plain graphite electrode-based MFC. CNT based electrodes showed as high as ∼6-fold increase in the power density (2470 mW/m2) compared to graphite electrodes (386 mW/m2). The present work demonstrates the potential of noble metal nanoparticles dispersed on CNTs based MFC for the generation of high energies from even simple bacteria like E. coli.