​After authoring a blockbuster Nano Letters paper, Justine's new paper is accepted to ACS Nano. In the paper entitled, "Sustainable Design of High Performance Micro-sized Microbial Fuel Cell with Carbon Nanotube Anode and Air Cathode", we report a 75 uL micro-sized MFC on silicon using CMOS compatible processes and employed a novel nanomaterial with exceptional electrochemical properties: multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), as the on-chip anode. We used this device to compare the usage of the more commonly used but highly expensive anode material, gold, as well as a more inexpensive substitute, nickel. This is the first anode material study done using the most sustainably designed micro-sized MFC to date which utilizes ambient oxygen as the electron acceptor with an air cathode instead of the chemical ferricyanide and without a membrane. Ferricyanide is unsustainable as the chemical must be continuously refilled while using oxygen naturally found in air makes the device mobile and is a key step in commercializing this for portable technology such as lab-on-chip for point-of-care diagnostics. At 880 mA/m² and 19 mW/m² the MWCNT anode outperformed the others in both current and power densities with between 6-20 times better performance. All devices were run for over 15 days indicating a stable and high endurance energy harvester already capable of producing enough power for ultra-low power electronics and able to consistently power them over time. (DOI: 10.1021/nn402103q)

Great work by Justine!