Crosslinked PVA Grafted Membranes for Efficient Generation Of Electricity with Microbial Fuel Cell
Abstract
Microbial fuel cell is a device which uses micro-organism as a catalyst to convert the energy stored in chemical bonds of various organic fuels into electrical energy. The concept of MFC is similar to that of traditional fuel cell but it uses microbes in place of metal catalyst.
In the present work, we proposed crosslinked Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) grafted membranes fabricated by sol gel technique in which the cross linking agent is itself a proton conductor and the salt bridge of agar gel. The membrane has been successfully tried on the microbial fuel cell. The cross linked membrane was characterized using the FT-IR, SEM and contact angle. Also the ion Exchange Capacity of membrane was found to be 1.29mmol/g. The water content capacity of membrane was found to be 92.5 % showing that the membrane is highly hygroscopic. Bioelectricity production from wastewater using the MFC having two chambers was successfully carried out. Potassium ferricynide was used as oxidizing agent in cathode chamber to enhance the voltage. The highest obtained voltage was 432.3 mV and 400.1 mV in salt bridge and PVA membrane operation respectively and it was stable for duration time of 28 h and 96h. The synthesized waste water was used for the stated results to maintain pH of 6-8. Maximum power density achieved was 858.4mW/m2 and current density was 11.76 mA/m2 for the membrane.