A facile modification of a polysulphone based anti biofouling anion exchange membrane for microbial fuel cell application

Abstract

The present study aims at developing an anti biofouling anion exchange membrane based on quaternized polysulphone (QPSU) having functionalized graphene oxide (FGO) in proportion. A solvent-casting method was used to fabricate the nanocomposites QPSU, QPSU/GO and QPSU/FGO. The changes in material properties due to FGO inclusion are studied in detail. The membranes were characterized using FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, XPS, XRD and impedance spectroscopy. Anti adhesion and antibacterial tests were also conducted. The agar plate test corroborates that QPSU/FGO has a better anti-bacterial property than QPSU and QPSU/GO. Out of the five, only QPSU/FGO-1.0% was able to register a maximum power density of 1036 ± 15 mW m⁻² and a current density of 2880 ± 70 mA m⁻². The same for other samples were relatively lower, i.e. it was 945 ± 8 mW m⁻² and 2780 ± 48 mA m⁻² for QPSU/FGO-0.5%, 874 ± 4 mW m⁻² and 2300 ± 27 mA m⁻² for QPSU/FGO-2.0%, 805 ± 2 mW m⁻², 2120 ± 13 mA m⁻² for QPSU and 576 mW m⁻² and 1800 mA m⁻² for AMI 7001. A comparison between the prepared and commercially available anion exchange membranes (AEMs) like AMI-7001 reveals that the membrane QPSU/FGO-1.0 wt% has the least resistance with enhanced efficiency, making it an efficient anti biofouling anion exchange membrane for its use in long term applications.