Bacterial-Based Micro Fuel Cells

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Micro power supply sources generated directly from biological organisms will have great impact for systems of all dimensions, starting from nanotechnology, to microsystems, and to macro scale devices. The motivation of the project came from the observation of the energy cycle from "nature" - energy in the form of light coming from sun assists the photosynthesis process in green plants that convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose. Animals take green plant as the food for glucose support and in the aerobic respiration process, convert glucose and oxygen into carbon dioxide, water and ATP (adenosine triphospate). We propose to extract energy from these energy translation processes by building up artificial fuel cells to interact with living bacteria for engineering applications, such as to power nano or micro devices. Moreover, because these processes actually occur at the cellular level, they are perfect power sources for nano and micro systems that we will focus our efforts on. Leveraging from our core competencies in MEMS fabrication and the advantage of high surface area-to-volume ratio in the small scale for more effective electrodes, we set the goals of this bacteria-based micro fuel cells as to develop 1) micromachined microbial fuel cells (mMFC) that use glucose as the fuel and 2) micro photosynthesis electrochemical cells (mPEC) that convert light to electrical power with the assistance of bacteria. For broader impacts, PI plans to offer summer projects for the SUPERB (Summer Undergraduate Program in Engineering Research at Berkeley) program at UC-Berkeley. The program is targeted to students of color, first-generation college students, educationally disadvantaged students, or students from historical minority institutions.