Issue 42, 2018

Ti3C2 MXene as an excellent anode material for high-performance microbial fuel cells

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) as green and sustainable energy sources have attracted much scientific and technological attention in the past two decades. However, the low extracellular electron transfer (EET) and poor bacterial adhesion are still the major bottlenecks in the development of MFCs with high power output. In this work, a two-dimensional Ti3C2 MXene was used as the anode and successfully started up the MFC after 1 day of inoculation with a bacterial mixture, giving an output voltage of 640 ± 8 mV with an external resistance of 1000 Ω and a maximum power density of 3.74 W m−2, which was much higher compared to the carbon cloth (CC) control (550 ± 8 mV and 2.05 W m−2). The enhancement in the MFC output performance is attributed to the multilayer structure, high surface area and excellent conductivity of Ti3C2 MXene, which can provide enough nutrition for microbial growth and fast mass transfer, as well as more active sites for biological catalytic redox reactions. Moreover, the direct EET between the Ti3C2/CC anode and the microorganisms was facilitated by the outer membrane cytochromes, a highly dense network of microbial nanowires and high concentration of extracellular polymeric substances (shortening the gap between the microorganism and the solid surface), thus effectively improving the MFC performance. The Ti3C2/CC anode generated 23% of the coulombic efficiency, higher than that of CC (18.6%). Both of the anodes exhibited high chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency (94.6% for Ti3C2/CC and 94.0% for CC) based on sodium acetate media.

Graphical abstract: Ti3C2 MXene as an excellent anode material for high-performance microbial fuel cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Jul 2018
Accepted
02 Oct 2018
First published
08 Oct 2018

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018,6, 20887-20895

Ti3C2 MXene as an excellent anode material for high-performance microbial fuel cells

D. Liu, R. Wang, W. Chang, L. Zhang, B. Peng, H. Li, S. Liu, M. Yan and C. Guo, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018, 6, 20887 DOI: 10.1039/C8TA07305H

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