Reticulated carbon foam derived from a sponge-like natural product as a high-performance anode in microbial fuel cells

In this paper, we report a reticulated carbon foam prepared by direct carbonization of the sponge-like natural product Pomelo peel, and its application as an anode in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Electrochemical measurements show that the carbon foam anode generates a high projected current density of over 4.0 mA cm−2 and a volumetric current density of 18.7 mA cm−3, which is five times that of commercial Reticulated Vitreous Carbon Foam (RVC) and 2.5 times that of graphite felts with similar electrode size. The high current density could be attributed to the wrinkled electrode surface, large pore size and high porosity of over 97% in the carbon foam.

[1]  U. Schröder,et al.  A three-dimensionally ordered macroporous carbon derived from a natural resource as anode for microbial bioelectrochemical systems. , 2012, ChemSusChem.

[2]  Yi Cui,et al.  Carbon nanotube-coated macroporous sponge for microbial fuel cell electrodes , 2012 .

[3]  U. Schröder,et al.  Effect of fiber diameter on the behavior of biofilm and anodic performance of fiber electrodes in microbial fuel cells. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[4]  P. Liang,et al.  Recent progress in electrodes for microbial fuel cells. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[5]  Antonio B. Fuertes,et al.  Sustainable porous carbons with a superior performance for CO2 capture , 2011 .

[6]  A. Carmona-Martínez,et al.  Electrospun and solution blown three-dimensional carbon fiber nonwovens for application as electrodes in microbial fuel cells , 2011 .

[7]  A. B. Fuertes,et al.  High density hydrogen storage in superactivated carbons from hydrothermally carbonized renewable organic materials , 2011 .

[8]  Yi Cui,et al.  Three-dimensional carbon nanotube-textile anode for high-performance microbial fuel cells. , 2011, Nano letters.

[9]  Markus Antonietti,et al.  Chemistry and materials options of sustainable carbon materials made by hydrothermal carbonization. , 2010, Chemical Society reviews.

[10]  J. Clark,et al.  Tuneable porous carbonaceous materials from renewable resources. , 2009, Chemical Society reviews.

[11]  W. Shim,et al.  Hydrogen storage on highly porous novel corn grain-based carbon monoliths , 2009 .

[12]  F. Harnisch,et al.  Improvement of the anodic bioelectrocatalytic activity of mixed culture biofilms by a simple consecutive electrochemical selection procedure. , 2008, Biosensors & bioelectronics.

[13]  Uwe Schröder,et al.  On the use of cyclic voltammetry for the study of anodic electron transfer in microbial fuel cells , 2008 .

[14]  C. M. Li,et al.  Carbon nanotube/polyaniline composite as anode material for microbial fuel cells , 2007 .

[15]  Bruce E Logan,et al.  Microbial fuel cells--challenges and applications. , 2006, Environmental science & technology.

[16]  Stefano Freguia,et al.  Microbial fuel cells: methodology and technology. , 2006, Environmental science & technology.

[17]  Bruce E. Logan,et al.  Microbial Fuel Cells , 2006 .

[18]  Zhen He,et al.  Electricity generation from artificial wastewater using an upflow microbial fuel cell. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[19]  W. Verstraete,et al.  Microbial fuel cells: novel biotechnology for energy generation. , 2005, Trends in biotechnology.