Synthesis and application of polypyrrole/carrageenan nano-bio composite as a cathode catalyst in microbial fuel cells

Esmaeili C 1 , Ghasemi M 2 , Heng LY 1 , Hassan SHA 3 , Abdi MM 4 , Daud WRW 5 Show all authors , Ilbeygi H 6 , Ismail AF 7

Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia-UKM, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Fuel Cell Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia-UKM, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia; Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia-UKM, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: mostafag@eng.ukm.my
  • 3 Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, New Valley Branch, New Valley, Egypt; Department of Biological Environment, Kangwon National University, 200-701 Chuncheon, Kangwon-do, South Korea
  • 4 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor D.E., Malaysia
  • 5 Fuel Cell Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia-UKM, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia; Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia-UKM, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 6 Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, QLD, Australia
  • 7 Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Carbohydr Polym, 2014 Dec 19;114:253-259.
PMID: 25263889 DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2014.07.072

Abstract

A novel nano-bio composite polypyrrole (PPy)/kappa-carrageenan(KC) was fabricated and characterized for application as a cathode catalyst in a microbial fuel cell (MFC). High resolution SEM and TEM verified the bud-like shape and uniform distribution of the PPy in the KC matrix. X-ray diffraction (XRD) has approved the amorphous structure of the PPy/KC as well. The PPy/KC nano-bio composites were then studied as an electrode material, due to their oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) ability as the cathode catalyst in the MFC and the results were compared with platinum (Pt) as the most common cathode catalyst. The produced power density of the PPy/KC was 72.1 mW/m(2) while it was 46.8 mW/m(2) and 28.8 mW/m(2) for KC and PPy individually. The efficiency of the PPy/KC electrode system is slightly lower than a Pt electrode (79.9 mW/m(2)) but due to the high cost of Pt electrodes, the PPy/KC electrode system has potential to be an alternative electrode system for MFCs.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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