Impedance Analysis of Electrodes in Bio-Fuel Cell

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Sarinee Ouitrakul
Department of Electrical Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330
Mana Sriyudthsak
Department of Electrical Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330
Sumittra Charojrochkul
National Science and Technology Development Agency, Pathumthani 12120
Toshihide Kakizono
Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Japan 73-8530

Abstract

The present paper reports an AC-impedance measurement of eight electrodes; silver, stainless steel,aluminum, nickel, carbon fiber cloth, carbon paper, gold-coated carbon fiber cloth and gold-coated carbonpaper. The impedance measurement is a technique used in analyzing electrical properties of electrode forapplying the bio-fuel cell (BFC). The impedance analysis results will point out which component is anelectron transfer limiting part in the BFC. The impedance measuring system consists of only a buffersolution and electrode. Therefore, the equivalent circuit consists of a solution resistance [RS], electrodeimpedance [ZE], interfacial resistance [RI] and constant-phase element impedance [ZCPE]. The resultsindicate that RI and ZCPE is an electron transfer limiting component between electrode and solution interface.Carbon fiber cloth, carbon paper, gold-coated carbon fiber cloth, gold-coated carbon paper and silverare suitable for using as the BFC electrode since their RI and ZCPE are low enough for facile electrontransfer in the system. While stainless steel, aluminum and nickel have high RI and ZCPE which limit theelectron transfer in the system then they are not suitable for the BFC application.

The impedance measurement results were compared with the BFC performance test which aregenerated voltage, current and power. The performance test have been carried out for only 4 electrode;carbon fiber cloth, carbon paper, silver and stainless steel. The high interfacial impedances make low BFCperformance and the low interfacial impedances make high BFC performance. At 1 kΩ load, it was foundthat carbon fiber cloth, carbon paper and silver could generate the current and power higher than stainlesssteel 3~4 and 17~22 times, respectively. Therefore, the impedance results were correlated with the BFCperformance that the performances of the BFC will be high when the impedance of the system is low.

Keywords : Impedance Analysis / Electrode / Bio-Fuel Cell / Electron Transfer

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 31 No. 1 (2008): January - March
Section
Original Articles
Author Biographies

Sarinee Ouitrakul, Department of Electrical Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330

Ph. D. Candidate, Department of Electrical Engineering.

Mana Sriyudthsak, Department of Electrical Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330

Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering.

Sumittra Charojrochkul, National Science and Technology Development Agency, Pathumthani 12120

Researcher, National Metal and Materials Technology Center.

Toshihide Kakizono, Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Japan 73-8530

Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Biotechnology.