Assembling nanostructured connections in bio-electrochemical systems

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been used in a variety of applications to date, however the power output of an MFC is its biggest limitation. The power output of an MFC can be improved by improving the electron transfer from the bacteria to the electrode. This project was interested in improving the electron transfer using gold nanoparticles.
Gold nanoparticles were incorporated in MAgarose which showed good conductive properties and when used in a bio-electrochemical cell with Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 as the bacteria, a current enhancement of ~ 29 times was recorded when compared to plain veil. Gold macrostructures were also electrodeposited in thiolated agarose gels and used as electrodes in the bio-electrochemical cell, but the current enhancement was not very significant compared to the control and reached a saturation point over time.
Thiol group functionalised PAMAM dendrimer protected gold nanoparticles, were attached to So surface and used as the biocatalysts in a bio-electrochemical cell. The current recorded was lower than the control. This was attributed to a weak biofilm formation on the electrode because of gold nanoparticle attachment.
The data obtained in this thesis suggests GelAuNP to be the most promising way forward of achieving a high power output from an MFC.