MICROBIAL FUEL CELL WITH GREEN SYNTHESIZED CuO BASED POLYANILINE COMPOSITE AS EFFICIENT BIOANODE MODIFIER CATALYST

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell is a new technology device that converts chemical energy stored in organic waste into electrical energy by using microorganisms as a catalyst with simultaneous waste water treatment. In this study, low-cost phyto-synthesized CuO nanoparticles integrate with conducting polyaniline (PANI) matrix to form CuO/PANI hybrid nanocomposite was synthesized by in situ polymerization methods and PANI was synthesized by oxidative polymerization method. The synthesized sample were characterized through UV-Vis spectroscopy, FTIR, SEM, and XRD, instruments to examine their optical properties, intermolecular bonding and the existence of functional groups, morphology and crystalline structural respectively. Four single chambered microbial fuel cells (MFCs) was constructed with bare pencil graphite anode, pencil graphite anode modified with CuO, PANI, CuO/PANI nanocomposites and PGEs cathode for all four devices. The average crystalline size for CuO NPs, PANI and CuO/PANI NCs was 28.05 nm, 3.2 nm and 20.6 nm respectively. It was found that the maximum open circuit voltage (OCV) obtained by bare PGE, CuO/ PGE,PANI/PGE and CuO/PANI/PGE was 229 ± 11.3 mV, 315 ± 35.3 mV, 485± 15.5 mV, and 630 ± 10.6 mV respectively. The maximum power density and corresponding current density obtained by CuO/PGE, and PANI/PGE have a value 265.75 mWm−2 & 2134.34 mA m−2 and 387.91 mWm−2 & 2418.06 mAm−2 respectively. A maximum of 416.01 mWm-2 , and 2429.56 mAm-2 power density at corresponding current densities was produced by CuO/PANI/PGE respectively. This was 6.3and 4-fold higher in power and current densities than unmodified PGE have values of 65.67 mWm-2 and 580.21 mAm-2 . From above results modifying anode of MFC with CuO nanoparticles based PANI composite gives a better output as compared with bare PGE in the MFC energy conversion system