Effect of Pretreatment of Nanocomposite PES‐Fe₃O₄ Separator on Microbial Fuel Cells Performance

Abstract

Nanocomposite membranes based on polyethersulfone (PES) and nanomagnetite have been investigated with regards to the effect of pretreatments on the electrochemical performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Nanocomposite membranes containing various amounts of Fe 3 O 4 (5, 10, and 20 wt%) were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and tensile tests. The application in MFC systems requires also chemical characterizations such as ion exchange capacity, water uptake, and oxygen permeability. The best formulation (PES10) showed electrochemical properties similar to the PES20. With the aim of obtaining a highperformance membrane with a low filler dosage, a pretreatment procedure (1 h of boiling step in deionized water and 1 h of immersion in 0.5 M of H 2 SO 4 ) was adopted. The results of such pretreatment in terms of maximum power and current density were 10.59 AE 0.72 mW/m 2 and 52.07 AE 0.86 mA/m 2 , respectively. The adoption of a pretreatment avoids the need of higher amount of nanofillers that can affect membrane surface roughness and its processing. Overall, the nanocomposite membranes represent a suitable technology in the MFC process. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 60:371-379, 2020.POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE-2020 FIG. 8. SEM micrographs at two image magnifications of the fouling layer on PES5 (a,b) and PES10 (c,d) membranes after 15-day operation of MFC.

Sulfonated co‐poly(ether imide)s with alkyne groups: Fabrication of crosslinked membranes and studies on PEM properties including MFC performance

“…Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a bioelectrochemical system that produces electrical energy by electroactive bacteria from wastewater. [39] The process and microbial fuel cell fabrication (MFC) details are provided in Supporting information (S1). Polarization studies were conducted to determine the optimum power density, which can be achieved for the MFCs operated with different proton exchange membranes.…”