Carbon Foam Anode Modified by Urea and Its Higher Electrochemical Performance in Marine Benthic Microbial Fuel Cell  

作　　者：FU Yubin LU Zhikai ZAI Xuerong WANG Jian 

机构地区：[1]Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China [2]China Lucky Group Corporation [3]College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ocean University of China

出　　处：《Journal of Ocean University of China》2015年第4期663-668,共6页中国海洋大学学报（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the Key Project of Natural Science Fund of Shandong Province,China(ZR2011 BZ008);the Special Fund of Marine Renewable Energy from State Ocean Bureau,China(GHME2011GD 04)

摘　　要：Electrode materials have an important effect on the property of microbial fuel cell(MFC). Carbon foam is utilized as an anode and further modified by urea to improve its performance in marine benthic microbial fuel cell(BMFC) with higher voltage and output power. The electrochemical properties of plain carbon foam(PC) and urea-modified carbon foam(UC) are measured respectively. Results show that the UC obtains better wettability after its modification and higher anti-polarization ability than the PC. A novel phenomenon has been found that the electrical potential of the modified UC anode is nearly 100 m V lower than that of the PC, reaching-570 ±10 m V(vs. SCE), and that it also has a much higher electron transfer kinetic activity, reaching 9399.4 m W m-2, which is 566.2-fold higher than that from plain graphite anode(PG). The fuel cell containing the UC anode has the maximum power density(256.0 m W m-2) among the three different BMFCs. Urea would enhance the bacteria biofilm formation with a more diverse microbial community and maintain more electrons, leading to a lower anodic redox potential and higher power output. The paper primarily analyzes why the electrical potential of the modified anode becomes much lower than that of others after urea modification. These results can be utilized to construct a novel BMFC with higher output power and to design the conditioner of voltage booster with a higher conversion ratio. Finally, the carbon foam with a bigger pore size would be a potential anodic material in conventional MFC.Electrode materials have an important effect on the property of microbial fuel cell （MFC）. Carbon foam is utilized as an anode and further modified by urea to improve its performance in marine benthic microbial fuel cell （BMFC） with higher voltage and output power. The electrochemical properties of plain carbon foam （PC） and urea-modified carbon foam （UC） are measured respec- tively. Results show that the UC obtains better wettability after its modification and higher anti-polarization ability than the PC. A novel phenomenon has been found that the electrical potential of the modified UC anode is nearly 100mV lower than that of the PC, reaching -570＋10mV （vs. SCE）, and that it also has a much higher electron transfer kinetic activity, reaching 9399.4mWm-2, which is 566.2-fold higher than that from plain graphite anode （PG）. The fuel cell containing the UC anode has the maximum power density （256.0 mWm-2） among the three different BMFCs. Urea would enhance the bacteria biofilm formation with a more diverse microbial community and maintain more electrons, leading to a lower anodic redox potential and higher power output. The paper primarily analyzes why the electrical potential of the modified anode becomes much lower than that of others after urea modification. These results can be utilized to construct a novel BMFC with higher output power and to design the conditioner of voltage booster with a higher conversion ratio. Finally, the carbon foam with a bigger pore size would be a potential anodic material in conventional MFC.

关 键 词：marine benthic microbial fuel cell carbon foam anode urea modification low anode potential high kinetic activity high output voltage 

分 类 号：TM911.45[电气工程—电力电子与电力传动]