A cost-effective polyurethane based activated carbon sponge anode for high-performance microbial fuel cells. Issue 102 (6th October 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Is Part Of: RSC advances. Volume 5:Issue 102(2015)
• Page Start: 84269
• Page End: 84275
• Publication Date: 2015-10-06
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540.5
• DOI: 10.1039/c5ra14644e
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2046-2069

Abstract

Abstract : A simple and cost-effective 3D activated carbon sponge MFC anode was fabricated by carbon black deposition and ammonium persulfate oxidation. Abstract : A simple and cost-effective three-dimensional (3D) polyurethane based activated carbon sponge (ACS) MFC anode was fabricated by carbon black (CB) deposition and ammonium persulfate (APS)/H2 SO4 oxidation. This 3D anode (denoted as APS-CB/ACS-SS) possessed remarkable ability with a maximum power density of 926 mW m −2, which was almost 226 folds that of the untreated ACS (4.1 mW m −2 ) anode, and 2.2 folds compared with a conventional carbon cloth anode MFC (414 mW m −2 ) under the same conditions. Accordingly, the coulombic efficiency (CE) reached 13.4%, an increase of 538.1% compared with the untreated ACS anode. The results of SEM, FTIR, CV and EIS measurements demonstrated that the performance improvement was related to the changes of surface functional groups introduced by APS/H2 SO4 oxidation, and the increase of conductivity and catalytic activity by CB coating. This study provided a new approach for cost-effective MFC anode fabrication as well as surface modification to enhance performance.