Voltage Reversal Behavior in Microbial-Anode Fuel Cells

Authors

En-ren ZHANG, Jiangsu provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Materials and Engineering, and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, China;Follow
Jun-le NIU, Jiangsu provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Materials and Engineering, and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, China;
Lei Liu, Jiangsu provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Materials and Engineering, and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, China;
Guo-wang DIAO, Jiangsu provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Materials and Engineering, and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, China;

Corresponding Author

En-ren ZHANG(erzhang@yzu.edu.cn)

Abstract

Voltage reversal behavior was investigated in microbial-anode fuel cells (MFCs). Electricity-producing biofilms were developed on the surface of anodes in MFCs inoculated with mixed inoculum from activated sludge. MFC duplicates generally exhibited different performances with respect to the internal resistance, the voltage output and the discharging duration when operating in batch mode. Voltage reversal was observed to occur first in the MFC with lower performance when connecting MFCs in series. Analysis of electrode potentials indicated that the potentials of microbial anodes quickly shifted to more positive values when enhancing discharge current, resulting in voltage reversal in MFCs. Increasing temperature would enhance the limiting current at room temperature, and avoiding the voltage reversal. Fuel shortage would enable the voltage reversal to easily occur. However, high discharge current still generates voltage reversal in fuel-rich MFCs. The performance of microbial anodes was observed to be affected with the voltage reversal. Transient voltage reversal had no obvious effect on the performance of the microbial anode. However, the performance of microbial anodes would decrease with increasing duration of voltage reversal. Microbial anodes were observed to be destroyed, and the performance of the microbial-anode fuel cells would not be recovered after long-time voltage reversal.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords

microbial- anode fuel cells, voltage reversal, anodic polarization

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.61558/2993-074X.2124

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Date

2013-08-28

Online Available Date

2013-08-28

Revised Date

2012-12-24

Received Date

2012-07-09

Recommended Citation

En-ren ZHANG, Jun-le NIU, Lei Liu, Guo-wang DIAO. Voltage Reversal Behavior in Microbial-Anode Fuel Cells[J]. Journal of Electrochemistry, 2013 , 19(4): 376-382.
DOI: 10.61558/2993-074X.2124
Available at: https://jelectrochem.xmu.edu.cn/journal/vol19/iss4/11