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Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can produce electricity by utilizing the microorganisms and organic compounds in human large intestine, which might provide a new way for implantable medical devices (IMDs) to have a lasting, stable and safe power source. Our previous work showed that MFC could power IMDs under colonic inner environment of healthy people, but the effects of environmental changes caused by diseases on electricity generation of MFC remain unclear. Therefore, five continuous-flow double-chamber MFCs with simulated colonic content as anodic substrate were constructed and the performance changes under different intestinal peristalsis rates, colonic temperature and pH values were investigated accordingly in this study. The results indicated that most of the environmental changes which may happen during illnesses could lead to the decrease of electricity generation of MFC, except the increase of colonic temperature. However, all of the MFCs could still generate electricity of at least 1.71 mW which could fulfil the requirement of most IMDs. The performance of MFC with multi-factor environmental change simulating diarrhea and fever could maintain stable for about 4h, but with prolonged disease duration, the output voltage dropped dramatically. Generally, MFC has strong potential to be used as power source for IMDs, even under most ill conditions, but strategies should still be applied to improve the stability of output to avoid some extreme conditions. |
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Keywords:microbial fuel cell; implantable medical devices; colonic inner environment; electricity generation |
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