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Functionalized conductive activated carbon-polyaniline composite anode for augmented energy recovery in microbial
Masapogu Yellappa1, J Annie Modestra2, Y V Rami Reddy3
1Bioengineering and Environmental Sciences Lab, Department of Energy and Environmental Engineering, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT), Hyderabad 500 007, India; Department of Chemistry, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati 517 502, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Abstract:
Internal resistance is one of the limiting factors for power production in microbial fuel cells (MFC). To overcome this, current study designed polyaniline functionalized activated carbon (PANi-FAC) composite as capacitive anode with strategic electrocatalytic capability, and was comparatively assessed with SSM-PANi and bare SSM as anodes in three double chambered MFCs respectively. Power output and COD removal efficiency of PANi-FAC coated on stainless steel mesh (SSM-PANi/FAC) is superior (322 mW/m2; 87.6%) in comparison to SSM-PANi (273 mW/m2; 62.4%) and bare SSM (169 mW/m2; 54%). In addition, maximum specific capacitance of hybrid electrodes is relatively high with SSM-PANi/FAC (360.84 F/g) than SSM-PANi anode (128.26 F/g). Nyquist impedance plots showed less charge-transfer resistance (Rct) with SSM-PANi/FAC (29.9 Ω) than SSM-PANi (206.8 Ω) and SSM anodes (678 Ω). Study infers that, development of electrochemical double layer capacitance makes SSM-PANi/FAC, a potential capacitive anode for augmenting bio-electrocatalytic activity and reducing Ohmic losses.
