Modification of carbon felt anode with graphene oxide-zeolite composite for enhancing the performance of microbial fuel cell

Abstract

The present investigation explores the potentiality of porous tetrahedral zeolite clay composited with graphene oxide (GO) to be used as superior biocompatible anode material for microbial fuel cell (MFC). Anode base material carbon felt was modified either with GO-zeolite (GZMA) or only GO (GMA) and used as anode in the MFCs. Cyclic voltammetry analysis demonstrated oxidation peaks at −0.29 mV and +0.179 mV with respective peak current of 2.4 mA and 0.22 mA using GZMA. These currents were found to be much higher than the other two tested anodes viz. GMA and bare carbon felt anode. Power density and coulombic efficiency of 280.56 mW/m2 and 44 ± 2.8%, respectively, from MFC using GZMA were found to be 3.6 and 2.75-times higher as compared to MFC using bare carbon felt anode (77.82 mW/m2 and 16.3 ± 1.4%, respectively). High specific surface area of graphene oxide facilitated extensive support for zeolite capping and superior bacterial cell adhesion property of zeolite enhanced the anode bio-compatibility of GZMA, which resulted in considerable improved performance of MFC.