Cathode activity plays an important role in the improvement of the microbial fuel cells on ocean floor （BMFCs）. A comparison study between Rayon-based （CF-R） and PAN-based carbon fiber （CF-P） cathodes is conduct...Cathode activity plays an important role in the improvement of the microbial fuel cells on ocean floor （BMFCs）. A comparison study between Rayon-based （CF-R） and PAN-based carbon fiber （CF-P） cathodes is conducted in the paper. The two carbon fibers were heat treated to improve cell performance （CF-R-H ＆ CF-P-H）, and were used to build a new BMFCs structure with a foamy carbon anode. The maximum power density was 112.4mWm-2 for CF-R-H, followed by 66.6mWm-2 for CF-R, 49.7 mWm-2 for CF-P-H and 21.6mWm-2 for CF-P respectively. The higher specific area and deep groove make CF-R have a better power output than with CF-P. Meanwhile, heat treatment of carbon fiber can improve cell power, nearly two-fold higher than heat treatment of plain fiber. This improvement may be due to the quinones group formation to accelerate the reduction of oxygen and electron transfer on the fiber surface in the three phase boundary after heat treatment. Compared to PAN-based carbon fiber, Rayon-based carbon fiber would be preferentially selected as cathode in novel BMFCs design due to its high surface area, low cost and higher power. The comparison research is significant for cathode material selection and cell design.展开更多
Electrode materials have an important effect on the property of microbial fuel cell(MFC). Carbon foam is utilized as an anode and further modified by urea to improve its performance in marine benthic microbial fuel ce...Electrode materials have an important effect on the property of microbial fuel cell(MFC). Carbon foam is utilized as an anode and further modified by urea to improve its performance in marine benthic microbial fuel cell(BMFC) with higher voltage and output power. The electrochemical properties of plain carbon foam(PC) and urea-modified carbon foam(UC) are measured respectively. Results show that the UC obtains better wettability after its modification and higher anti-polarization ability than the PC. A novel phenomenon has been found that the electrical potential of the modified UC anode is nearly 100 m V lower than that of the PC, reaching-570 ±10 m V(vs. SCE), and that it also has a much higher electron transfer kinetic activity, reaching 9399.4 m W m-2, which is 566.2-fold higher than that from plain graphite anode(PG). The fuel cell containing the UC anode has the maximum power density(256.0 m W m-2) among the three different BMFCs. Urea would enhance the bacteria biofilm formation with a more diverse microbial community and maintain more electrons, leading to a lower anodic redox potential and higher power output. The paper primarily analyzes why the electrical potential of the modified anode becomes much lower than that of others after urea modification. These results can be utilized to construct a novel BMFC with higher output power and to design the conditioner of voltage booster with a higher conversion ratio. Finally, the carbon foam with a bigger pore size would be a potential anodic material in conventional MFC.展开更多
基金support by the Key Project of Nature Science Fund of Shandong Province, China (ZR2011B Z008)the Special Fund of Marine Renewable Energy from China’s State Oceanic Administration (GHME 2011GD04)
文摘Cathode activity plays an important role in the improvement of the microbial fuel cells on ocean floor （BMFCs）. A comparison study between Rayon-based （CF-R） and PAN-based carbon fiber （CF-P） cathodes is conducted in the paper. The two carbon fibers were heat treated to improve cell performance （CF-R-H ＆ CF-P-H）, and were used to build a new BMFCs structure with a foamy carbon anode. The maximum power density was 112.4mWm-2 for CF-R-H, followed by 66.6mWm-2 for CF-R, 49.7 mWm-2 for CF-P-H and 21.6mWm-2 for CF-P respectively. The higher specific area and deep groove make CF-R have a better power output than with CF-P. Meanwhile, heat treatment of carbon fiber can improve cell power, nearly two-fold higher than heat treatment of plain fiber. This improvement may be due to the quinones group formation to accelerate the reduction of oxygen and electron transfer on the fiber surface in the three phase boundary after heat treatment. Compared to PAN-based carbon fiber, Rayon-based carbon fiber would be preferentially selected as cathode in novel BMFCs design due to its high surface area, low cost and higher power. The comparison research is significant for cathode material selection and cell design.
基金supported by the Key Project of Natural Science Fund of Shandong Province,China(ZR2011 BZ008)the Special Fund of Marine Renewable Energy from State Ocean Bureau,China(GHME2011GD 04)
文摘Electrode materials have an important effect on the property of microbial fuel cell(MFC). Carbon foam is utilized as an anode and further modified by urea to improve its performance in marine benthic microbial fuel cell(BMFC) with higher voltage and output power. The electrochemical properties of plain carbon foam(PC) and urea-modified carbon foam(UC) are measured respectively. Results show that the UC obtains better wettability after its modification and higher anti-polarization ability than the PC. A novel phenomenon has been found that the electrical potential of the modified UC anode is nearly 100 m V lower than that of the PC, reaching-570 ±10 m V(vs. SCE), and that it also has a much higher electron transfer kinetic activity, reaching 9399.4 m W m-2, which is 566.2-fold higher than that from plain graphite anode(PG). The fuel cell containing the UC anode has the maximum power density(256.0 m W m-2) among the three different BMFCs. Urea would enhance the bacteria biofilm formation with a more diverse microbial community and maintain more electrons, leading to a lower anodic redox potential and higher power output. The paper primarily analyzes why the electrical potential of the modified anode becomes much lower than that of others after urea modification. These results can be utilized to construct a novel BMFC with higher output power and to design the conditioner of voltage booster with a higher conversion ratio. Finally, the carbon foam with a bigger pore size would be a potential anodic material in conventional MFC.
