Biological Fuel Cell

[Greenery]

Hello,
I am planning on conducting an experiment to compare the efficiencies of a microbial biological fuel cell by manipulating certain variables within the fuel cell itself (i.e. differing concentrations of the microorganism, electron-mediator, food supply/fuel, etc.). I am having difficulty in determining which variables I should manipulate, how many trials I should conduct, where to acquire the necessary materials as well as the actual building process of the fuel cell. I have conducted research regarding the electrochemistry of a fuel cell, but I feel that my research has merely 'scratched the surface'. I am wondering how I could have access to more scientific articles or journals regarding this topic to further my research. Some advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ahana

[davidkallman]

Hi Greenery,

If you pose "what is a microbial biological fuel cell" to answers.com, you'll get a large number hits that could provide the background you're looking for. Of note, among the top hits are:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 155306.htm
http://automation.tkk.fi/Biofuelcell
http://engr.oregonstate.edu/news/story/2185
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/20 ... 01_osu.txt
http://biro-net.aber.ac.uk/newsletters/ ... 3_2004.pdf

Some notes:

1. The last entry above, "Energy autonomy in robots through Microbial Fuel Cells" suggests a project, i.e., build the robot. I don't know if this is practicable.
2. I only picked hits from the beginning of the answers.com output. There may be good hits later on. So, you may discover more good hits.
3. I know haven't addressed your questions on variables, number of trials, where to acquire the necessary materials and the building process of the fuel cell. Maybe others can help here.
4. It is possible that your query fits better on the "Life, Earth, and Social Sciences" board. I'll send a message to the Science Buddies staff to see if they want to reclassify your message.

[barretttomlinson]

Hi:

Here are a few more ideas to further your research efforts:
These might help:
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=18503205

http://ecsmeet5.peerx-press.org/ms_file ... jt0tq9.pdf

Here are recent review papers of the field with lots of references:

http://blogs.epfl.ch/document/15579

http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/49019/01/Bio ... opment.pdf

You can search US patents for topics of interest (for example there are 25 biofuel cell patents issued since 1976), and read the full patent texts:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars ... D2=&d=PTXT

You can also visit almost any college or university library and access Chemical Abstracts, which should give citations and abstracts to almost all the published literature on subjects of chemical interest. If you have an article that is very useful to you, it also pays to consult Science Citation Index, which will list all papers published since the reference paper which cite the paper, which can be very useful. This index is usually in most university libraries. If you happen to know a professional chemist, he or she may be able to access Chemical Abstracts through the web, which is much faster to search, but is expensive unless you have access through an institutional subscription.

Finally, I like http://www.google.com and google scholar, which will find many of the research papers for free, if they have been posted on the web.

You seem to be undertaking a very timely project. I wish you great success with it.

Best regards,

Barrett Tomlinson

[ChrisG]

In addition to Barrett's good advice, I would recommend seeking a mentor who is actively working on that topic. They will be able to save you many hours of combing through papers to find the most relevant ones.