Improving the Performance of Microbial Fuel Cell by Fabrication of a Cellulosic Nano-Biocomposite as Anode Electrode

Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is of the renewable energy in which microorganisms play the role of biocatalysts in Ox/Red reactions of a substrate like glucose. In MFC electrode is a key component. In this work, a porous nano-biocomposite electrode based on Bacterial Cellulose (BC) and polyaniline as continuous and dispersed phases respectively were synthesized by in situ chemical polymerization of 4 various concentrations of aniline. The synthesis was studied by FT-IR and FE-SEM. Then it was applied in MFC as an anode. Performance of MFC was examined in presence of new anodes. The resistance of electrodes and produced power and current densities were measured. The maximum power of 375mW/m3 and current of 617 mA/m2 were recorded for the system for the anode with maximum aniline concentration.