Electrochemical recovery of metal copper in microbial fuel cell using graphene oxide/polypyrrole cathode catalyst

Abstract

The graphene oxide and conducting polypyrrole composite modified cathodes is prepared by electro-polymerization. The microscopic images of the graphene oxide/polypyrrole composite confirmed that the active carbon support was entirely covered by polypyrrole. The ascertain graphene oxide/polypyrrole composite is characterized through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The graphene oxide/polypyrrole composite exhibited higher open circuit voltage. The Cyclic voltammetry and Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis suggest the improved performance of graphene oxide/polypyrrole as compared to polypyrrole and bare graphite in terms of lower internal resistance and better electro-catalytic activity. The large amount of active spots with continual hauler networks of graphene oxide/polypyrrole compound showed an improved microbial fuel cell power output of 600.25 mW/m 3. Graphene oxide/polypyrrole as a cathode catalyst is proved to be sustainable for the effective remediation of metal copper. The maximum copper recovery is 98.88% with simultaneous % Chemical oxygen demand reduction of 98.6%. These research findings suggest the possible knowledge for the synthesis of graphene based composites by electro-polymerization.

High Crystalline Quality Conductive Polypyrrole Film Prepared by Interface Chemical Oxidation Polymerization Method

“…Since the invention of conductive polyacetylene in the 1970s [1], conductive polymers (CPs) have attracted great interest due to their good mechanical, optical and electrical properties. Nowadays, CPs have been widely used in optoelectronic devices [2][3][4][5], chemical sensors [6][7][8][9], capacitor electrodes [10][11][12][13][14][15] and other fields [16][17][18][19]. In the past few decades, many different types of CP have been synthesized using different methods, such as polypyrrole [20,21], polythiophene [22,23], polyaniline [24,25] and so on [26].…”