Macroscale porous carbonized polydopamine-modified cotton textile for application as electrode in microbial fuel cells

摘要

The anode material is a crucial factor that significantly affects the cost and performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). In this study, a novel macroscale porous, biocompatible, highly conductive and low cost electrode, carbonized polydopamine-modified cotton textile (NC@CCT), is fabricated by using normal cheap waste cotton textiles as raw material via a simple in situ polymerization and carbonization treatment as anode of MFCs. The physical and chemical characterizations show that the macroscale porous and biocompatible NC@CCT electrode is coated by nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles and offers a large specific surface area (888.67 m(2) g(-1)) for bacterial cells growth, accordingly greatly increases the loading amount of bacterial cells and facilitates extra-cellular electron transfer (EET). As a result, the MFC equipped with the NC@CCT anode achieves a maximum power density of 931 +/- 61 mW m(-2), which is 80.5% higher than that of commercial carbon felt (516 +/- 27 mW m(-2)) anode. Moreover, making full use of the normal cheap waste cotton textiles can greatly reduce the cost of MFCs and the environmental pollution problem.