Jayesh M. Sonawane
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Title: Graphene: a promising electrode for microbial fuel cells
Biography
Biography: Jayesh M. Sonawane
Abstract
Microbial fuel cells (MFC`s) are promising sustainable technology for electricity production from waste organic matter. The anode employed for this purpose plays a major role in the performance of the MFC system. The coating of graphene on stainless steel has been investigated in this study for improving the performance of an anode in a MFC system. The use of graphene coating on a stainless steel (SS-316) plate produced a maximum power density of 201mWm-2, while a bare stainless steel plate only gave a maximum power density of 100mWm-2. The use of graphene coating on copper foil gave even higher maximum power density of 262 mW/m-2. The maximum open circuit potentials observed were 0.95 V, 1.0 V and 1.12 V for SS anode, SS anode with graphene and copper foil with graphene, respectively. The system internal resistance of pristine stainless steel, grapheme - stainless steel and copper – graphene anodes were 43±4Ω, 42±1Ω and 36±5Ω, respectively.