TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of nitrogen addition on the performance of microbial fuel cell anodes
AU - Saito, Tomonori
AU - Mehanna, Maha
AU - Wang, Xin
AU - Cusick, Roland D.
AU - Feng, Yujie
AU - Hickner, Michael A.
AU - Logan, Bruce E.
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-11-003-I3
Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (CBET-08,03,137), Award KUS-11-003-I3 from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, and the National Creative Research Groups of China (No. 50821002). We thank Dr. Timothy B. Tighe for helping XPS analysis. We also thank Mr. David W. Jones and Ms. Ellen M. Bingham for technical support for this research.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.
PY - 2011/1
Y1 - 2011/1
N2 - Carbon cloth anodes were modified with 4(N,N-dimethylamino)benzene diazonium tetrafluoroborate to increase nitrogen-containing functional groups at the anode surface in order to test whether the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) could be improved by controllably modifying the anode surface chemistry. Anodes with the lowest extent of functionalization, based on a nitrogen/carbon ratio of 0.7 as measured by XPS, achieved the highest power density of 938mW/m2. This power density was 24% greater than an untreated anode, and similar to that obtained with an ammonia gas treatment previously shown to increase power. Increasing the nitrogen/carbon ratio to 3.8, however, decreased the power density to 707mW/m2. These results demonstrate that a small amount of nitrogen functionalization on the carbon cloth material is sufficient to enhance MFC performance, likely as a result of promoting bacterial adhesion to the surface without adversely affecting microbial viability or electron transfer to the surface. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.
AB - Carbon cloth anodes were modified with 4(N,N-dimethylamino)benzene diazonium tetrafluoroborate to increase nitrogen-containing functional groups at the anode surface in order to test whether the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) could be improved by controllably modifying the anode surface chemistry. Anodes with the lowest extent of functionalization, based on a nitrogen/carbon ratio of 0.7 as measured by XPS, achieved the highest power density of 938mW/m2. This power density was 24% greater than an untreated anode, and similar to that obtained with an ammonia gas treatment previously shown to increase power. Increasing the nitrogen/carbon ratio to 3.8, however, decreased the power density to 707mW/m2. These results demonstrate that a small amount of nitrogen functionalization on the carbon cloth material is sufficient to enhance MFC performance, likely as a result of promoting bacterial adhesion to the surface without adversely affecting microbial viability or electron transfer to the surface. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/598054
UR - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960852410009211
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77957345664&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biortech.2010.05.063
DO - 10.1016/j.biortech.2010.05.063
M3 - Article
C2 - 20889061
SN - 0960-8524
VL - 102
SP - 395
EP - 398
JO - Bioresource Technology
JF - Bioresource Technology
IS - 1
ER -