Electrodes and methods for microbial fuel cells
AssigneeThe Penn State Research Foundation
InventorsBruce Logan, Shaoan Cheng
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Abstract
Methods of improving a performance parameter of a microbial fuel cell are provided according to embodiments of the present invention which include heating an electrode and exposing the heated electrode to ammonia gas to produce a treated electrode characterized by an increased positive surface charge on the electrode surface. Improved performance parameters include increased maximum power density, increased coulombic efficiency, increased volumetric power density and decreased microbial fuel cell operation time to achieve maximum power density
Claims31
A method of improving a performance parameter of a microbial fuel cell, comprising:
- heating an electrode having an electrode surface to produce a heated electrode;
- exposing the heated electrode to ammonia gas to produce a treated electrode characterized by an increased positive surface charge on the electrode surface;
- connecting the treated electrode and a cathode to produce an electrode assembly wherein the treated electrode and the cathode are in electrical communication;
- and
- disposing the electrode assembly at least partially in a reaction chamber, the reaction chamber containing a bioxidizable substrate for exoelectrogen microorganisms and a plurality of exoelectrogen microorganisms, thereby providing a microbial filet cell having an improved performance parameter compared to a microbial fuel cell without the treated electrode.
A microbial fuel cell, comprising:
- an anode treated with ammonia gas, the anode characterized by increased positive surface charge compared to an untreated anode, the microbial fuel cell having an improved performance parameter compared to a microbial fuel cell without the treated electrode.
A method of increasing positive surface charge on an electrode surface, comprising:
- heating an electrode to produce a heated electrode;
- and
- exposing the heated electrode to ammonia gas, thereby producing an electrode having an increased positive surface charge on an electrode surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.