Abstract
Microbial fuel cell, MFC, is a bioengine that combine biochemical and electrochemical principle respectively to extract the stored electrons in organic material and to turn them into electricity. In an MFC, living electroactive microbes, with its whole enzymatic system, are employed to biocatalyze the oxidation of organic fuel; an anode is artificially introduced to divert the electrons, as resulted in the bacterial respiratory system; and oppositely a cathode drives the electron flow that further be switched to electrical power. Electroactive microbes spread out in numerous sources such as soil, compost, sludge, waste water, and so on. The feed, organic fuel and/or other nutrient, also can abundantly be present in their matrix sources and in many other priceless sources, which commonly available in daily life. Bacterial abundance and unlimited organic fuel are the two attractive reasons for the development of sustainable energy source as such as MFC, which is also drawn our attention in this research. Herein, we developed MFC, double chamber (DCMFC) and single chamber (SCMFC), which powered by garden compost as electroactive source and acetate fuel. For sustainability reason and other advantages i.e. practicability and eco-friendly, we mainly focused on SCMFC with air-breathing cathode system. The common problematic of the SCMFC is the limited power production that mainly due to the slow kinetic of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the cathodic part. Therefore, it is important to developed the material of air-breathing cathode which has a proper catalysis activity toward ORR to overcome this limitation. Carbon felt (CF) is the selected support material that suitable for air-breathing cathode fabrication. While, platinum (Pt) and manganese oxide (MnOx) respectively, as supreme and runner-up catalyst’s class, has been grown on CF through a simple electrodeposition method. The resulting materials, named as ACF@Pt and ACF@MnOx, have been characterized comprehensively by electrochemical and physicochemical methods to determine their electrocatalytic performances, which support for air-breathing cathode application. Accordingly, we have developed two main types of air-breathing cathode, i.e. ACF@Pt and ACF@MnOx, which have been successfully applied in SCMFC powered by garden compost with generated power density respectively 140 mW m-2 and 110 mW m-2. Moreover, the both developed material also reveal some promising application. For instance, ACF@Pt has been applied as MFC’s anode, both in DCMFC and SCMFC, and has improved the power density up to 300 mW m-2. Interestingly, it is also shown as an excellent electrocatalyst in hydrogen evolution reaction, HER. While, the ACF@MnOx material shows a promising electrocatalyst in an electro-Fenton like system to mineralization of biorefractory material i.e. one of the hazardous pollutant constituent of wastewater.