Improved performance of organic–inorganic nanocomposite membrane for bioelectricity generation and wastewater treatment in microbial fuel cells

Abstract

A growing demand for sustainable and green polymer membranes leads to the development of organic–inorganic based nanocomposites for various applications. In this study, the nanocomposite membranes were prepared by incorporation of nano-clay montmorillonite(MMT) into a chitosan(Cs) biopolymer matrix. Different weight ratios of Cs/MMT membranes were prepared by solution casting-solvent evaporation method and subsequently used as a proton exchange membrane in microbial fuel cells(MFC) applications. The effect of MMT addition in Cs matrix was investigated on the performance of dual-chambered MFC in terms of power generation and chemical oxygen demand(COD) removal. Among the tested membranes, Cs/MMT(1/1) showed the highest power density of 85.7 mW/m2 in comparison with neat chitosan and control Nafion of 77.2 mW/m2 and 0.7 mW/m2, respectively. The wastewater treatment efficiency for Cs/MMT(1/1) membrane was also enhanced by 1.4- and 2.5-times from neat Cs and Nafion membranes, respectively. Characterization studies such as FTIR and SEM showed the successful incorporation of MMT on Cs matrix. The decreased weight loss of Cs/MMT membranes upon the addition of MMT indicated the improved thermal stability. These tremendous improvements for performance showed that biopolymer Cs-based nanocomposite incorporated with MMT can be a candidate for alternative bio-PEM in MFC.