Investigation of polypyrrole/TiO2 and poypyrrole/WO3 nanocomposites as anode modifier in salt bridge microbial fuel cell using municipal wastewater

Abstract

Developing nanocomposite materials based on conducting polymers (CPs) and metal-oxide nanoparticles, which combine redox electrochemistry of CPs with intrinsic properties of nano-scale semiconducting materials, may offer improved microbial fuel cells (MFCs) performances. Polypyrrole (PPY) based nanocomposites were synthesized by chemical oxidative polymerization method and were further used as an anode modifier in salt bridge MFCs. The PPY-based nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The maximum power density of 16.7 mW/m2, 20.1 mW/m2, and 22.5 mW/m2 were obtained for MFC2-PPY, MFC3-PPY/TiO2 and MFC4-PPY/WO3 respectively, suggesting that modification of the anode with PPY- based nanocomposites is beneficial in the electricity generation of the MFC, and have superior performance as compared to the controller MFC1-CC (11.6 mW/m2).