Silicon titanium dioxide nanostructured electrodes for performance enhancement of microbial fuel cell treating distillery wastewater

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has attracted the attention of the research community as a potential renewable energy source. MFC is a bioelectrochemical device capable of generating electricity through the use of electrons obtained from the anaerobic oxidation of wastewater. Despite being a sustainable technology that can offset the operational cost of wastewater treatment plants, they are not commercialized at a large scale due to the associated limitations such as insufficient power generation, high catalyst cost, low charge transfer efficiency, and poor electrode stability. Electrodes are the main components of MFC that determines its performance in terms of power generation and wastewater treatment. Electrodes generally suffer from problems of material property and configurations. To overcome the limitations, a number of electrode modifications are explored across the globe by different research communities. Modification using nanoparticles are gaining attentions in recent times. Thus, the present study aims to synthesize silicon and titanium dioxide nanoparticles through magnesiothermic reduction method and sol-gel method, respectively and evaluate their potential as an electrode modifier (surface). newlineThe synthesized rice husk derived silicon nanoparticles (RH-SiNPs) and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) were spherical with a size range of 15-35 nm and 10-25 nm, newlinev newlinerespectively. The RH-SiNPs and TiO2NPs exhibited crystalline hexagonal and tetragonal arrangement with a pore size and surface area of 22 nm and 12.9 nm and 18.4 m2 g-1 and 19.1m2 g-1, respectively. The synthesized nanoparticles were spray coated on carbon cloth and subjected to electrochemical analysis (cyclic voltammetry, impedance, conductance and resistance). A loading density of 0.5 mg cm-2 gave the best result showing a highest specific capacitance of 2.45 and 1.2 F g-1 and lowest resistance of 19.9 and#937; and 67 and#937; for silicon and titanium dioxide nanoparticles, respectively. The silicon and titanium dioxide nanoparticles coated electro