Bifunctional Silver Nanoparticle Cathode in Microbial Fuel Cells for Microbial Growth Inhibition with Comparable Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity

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• 作者：Junyeong An ; Hongrae Jeon ; Jaeyoung Lee ; In Seop Chang
• 刊名：Environmental Science & Technology
• 出版年：2011
• 出版时间：June 15, 2011
• 年：2011
• 卷：45
• 期：12
• 页码：5441-5446
• 全文大小：879K
• 年卷期：v.45,no.12(June 15, 2011)
• ISSN：1520-5851

文摘

Organic contamination of water bodies in which benthic microbial fuel cells (benthic MFCs) are installed, and organic crossover from the anode to the cathode of membraneless MFCs, is a factor causing oxygen depletion and substrate loss in the cathode due to the growth of heterotrophic aerobic bacteria. This study examines the possible use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as a cathodic catalyst for MFCs suffering from organic contamination and oxygen depletion. Four treated cathodes (AgNPs-coated, Pt/C-coated, Pt/C+AgNPs-coated, and plain graphite cathodes) were prepared and tested under high levels of organics loading. During operation (fed with 50 mM acetate), the AgNPs-coated system showed the highest DO concentration (0.8 mg/L) in the cathode area as well as the highest current (ranging from 0.04 to 0.12 mA). Based on these results, we concluded that (1) the growth of oxygen-consuming heterotrophic microbes could be inhibited by AgNPs, (2) the function of AgNPs as a bacterial growth inhibitor resulted in a greater increase of DO concentration in the cathode than the other tested cathode systems, (3) AgNPs could be applied as a cathode catalyst for oxygen reduction, and as a result (4) the MFC with the AgNPs-coated cathode led to the highest current generation among the tested MFCs.