MICROBIAL FUEL CELL COMPRISING A MICROPROBE ARRAY

摘要

Provided a microbial fuel cell, comprising: a microfluidic element having an inlet portion and an outlet portion for the intake and discharge of a culture fluid containing cells, and a microchannel portion for capturing the cells in the culture fluid and interconnecting the inlet portion and the outlet portion; a microprobe-array element having microprobes as anodes for extracting electrons produced during cell metabolism, and delivering the extracted electrons to an external circuit outside the cells; and cathodes for delivering the electrons used in the external circuit to an electron acceptor outside the cells. The microprobes penetrate through the microfluidic element, and are inserted into multiple single cells captured by the microchannel portion when the microfluidic element and the microprobe-array element are coupled together. The microprobes are separated from the single cells when the microfluidic element and the microprobe-array element are separated from each other.