Inkjet-printed porous polyaniline gel as an efficient anode for microbial fuel cells

• Main Authors: Song, Rong-Bin, Yan, Kun, Lin, Zong-Qiong, Loo, Joachim Say Chye, Pan, Li-Jia, Zhang, Qichun, Zhang, Jian-Rong, Zhu, Jun-Jie
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Electrodes; DRNTU::Engineering::Materials; Anodes
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82236; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/47996
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Future application of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) requires a highthroughput and more convenient pathway to manufacture highperformance anodes. In this research, inkjet-printed PANI gel on carbon paper was first fabricated and then successfully employed as anodes in MFCs. Thanks to the inkjet-printing technology, such anodes can be easily produced in large quantities. Moreover, these anodes possessed good conductivity and a porous structure, aswell as the ability to electrostatically interact with bacteria cells, which contributed to a 6.1-fold increase in the output power over that of the unmodified carbon paper. Taken together, our study presents a novel strategy in preparing highly scalable, high-performance MFC anodes, in promoting the practical application of MFC technology.