Electrodepositing technique for improving the performance of crystalline and amorphous carbonaceous anodes for MFCs

Abstract

The properties and cost of anode materials are essential factors affecting the microbial fuel cell (MFC) performance. Therefore, in this study, an electrodeposition technique is presented as a cheap, easy, efficient, and straightforward strategy to increase the exoelectroactive bacterial adhesion and improve the surface properties of the crystalline and amorphous carbonaceous materials for use as anodes in the microbial fuel cells enriched with unconditioned industrial wastewater. Individually, the surfaces of commercial activated carbon AC (amorphous), carbon paper CP (crystalline), and carbon cloth (CC) were modified by an iron electrodeposition technique. In air-cathode microbial fuel cells, the suggested modification strategy strongly enhanced the power generation as the observed increase was 18.5%, 47.5% and 65.8% for the activated carbon, carbon cloth and carbon paper, respectively. Moreover, the coulombic efficiency (CE) is increased after iron electrodeposition modification process to reach up to 80% in case of treated activated carbon anode. Overall, the results confirmed the successful electrodeposition of iron, as an effective, simple and cheap surface treatment technique, is more efficient in the crystalline materials as compared to the amorphous materials.