Development and application of vanadium oxide/polyaniline composite as a novel cathode catalyst in microbial fuel cell |
| |
| Authors: | Khadijeh Beigom Ghoreishi Mostafa Ghasemi Mostafa Rahimnejad Mohd Ambar Yarmo Wan Ramli Wan Daud Nilofar Asim Manal Ismail |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. School of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia;2. Fuel Cell Institute, University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia;3. Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia;4. Biotechnology Research Lab., Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran;5. Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia |
| |
| Abstract: | Polyaniline (Pani), vanadium oxide (V2O5), and Pani/V2O5 nanocomposite were fabricated and applied as a cathode catalyst in Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) as an alternative to Pt (Platinum), which is a commonly used expensive cathode catalyst. The cathode catalysts were characterized using Cyclic Voltammetry and Linear Sweep Voltammetry to determine their oxygen reduction activity; furthermore, their structures were observed by X‐ray Diffraction, X‐ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, and Field‐Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy. The results showed that Pani/V2O5 produced a power density of 79.26 mW/m2, which is higher than V2O5 by 65.31 mW/m2 and Pani by 42.4 mW/m2. Furthermore, the Coulombic Efficiency of the system using Pani/V2O5 (16%) was higher than V2O5 and Pani by 9.2 and 5.5%, respectively. Pani–V2O5 also produced approximately 10% more power than Pt, the best and most common cathode catalyst. It declares that Pani–V2O5 can be a suitable alternative for application in a MFC system. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
| |
| Keywords: | cathode catalyst microbial fuel cell nanocomposite Pani/V2O5 |
|
|
