Fabrication of anode electrode by a novel acrylic based graphite paint on stainless steel mesh and investigating biofilm effect on electrochemical behavior of anode in a single chamber microbial fuel cell

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a novel green technology that converts the chemical energy of biodegradable wastes into bioelectricity. One of the greatest challenges in making MFC a scalable and cost-effective technology is electrode material and design. Conductive inks and paints based on carbon materials are attractive options to modify the surface of electrodes. By preparing these paints in a simple way that their raw materials are easily found, the performance of electrodes such as stainless steel mesh (SSM) can be improved in the field of power generation. So, low-cost high performance electrodes can be produced. Despite various binders for making graphite paints (GPs), we used acrylic binder to make the graphite conductive paint by a simple cost-effective process for the first time to the best of our knowledge. By studying the electrochemical characteristics of acrylic-based GP, it was found that the acrylic has high stability in aqueous environments and excellent adhesion properties to hold graphite particles together. As a result, the surface of the SSM was modified using acrylic-based GP and applied as low cost anode electrode with sinusoidal geometry in single chamber MFC (SCMFC). The biofilm formation and its effect on the novel anode were investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) during 5 weeks of operation in SCMFC. Then, six individual circuits were created by connecting each anode electrode to an air cathode. The membrane-less SCMFC was able to generate a maximum power density of 463.88 mW/m3 at 1991 mA/m3 using only one of these circuits.