Facile Fabrication of Graphene‐Containing Foam as a High‐Performance Anode for Microbial Fuel Cells |
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| Authors: | Lu Yang Shuqin Wang Shuqin Peng Hongmei Jiang Youming Zhang Wenfang Deng Prof Yueming Tan Prof Ming Ma Prof Qingji Xie |
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| Affiliation: | Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine, Research (Ministry of Education of China), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081 (P. R. China) |
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| Abstract: | Facile fabrication of novel three‐dimensional anode materials to increase the bacterial loading capacity and improve substrate transport in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is of great interest and importance. Herein, a novel graphene‐containing foam (GCF) was fabricated easily by freeze‐drying and pyrolysis of a graphene oxide–agarose gel. Owing to the involvement of graphene and stainless‐steel mesh in the GCF, the GCF shows high electrical conductivity, enabling the GCF to be a conductive electrode for MFC applications. With the aid of agarose, the GCF electrode possesses a supermacroporous structure with pore sizes ranging from 100–200 μm and a high surface area, which greatly increase the bacterial loading capacity. Cell viability measurements indicate that the GCF possesses excellent biocompatibility. The MFC, equipped with a 0.4 mm‐thick GCF anode, shows a maximum area power density of 786 mW m?2, which is 4.1 times that of a MFC equipped with a commercial carbon cloth anode. The simple fabrication route in combination with the outstanding electrochemical performance of the GCF indicates a promising anode for MFC applications. |
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| Keywords: | agarose anodes foams graphene microbial fuel cells |
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