NICKEL-COBALT OXIDES COATED ON POLYPYRROLE NANOTUBES AS BIFUNCTIONAL ELECTRODE CATALYST FOR ENHANCING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE MICROBIAL FUEL CELLS

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is an emerging technology for the conversion of waste to electricity and simultaneously treatment of the wastewater. The electrode materials play essential role on its performance. Therefore, present study demonstrates the Nickel-cobalt oxides and polypyrrole nanotubes coated on stainless steel sheet as the cost-effective electrode catalyst material for the bifunctional MFCs which is showing the good oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity. The catalysts have been prepared in this study- NiCo2O4@PNT. NiO@PNT, CoO@PNT and PNT. It has been shown that NiCo2O4@PNT (427.52 mW/ m²) catalyst shown the maximum power density compared to that of NiO@PNT (257.85 mW/m²), CoO@PNT (165.36 mW/m²) and PNT (124 mW/m²) catalyst. The present work demonstrated for the first time for the study of bifunctional MFCs electrodes catalyst materials, thereby this is the promising cost-effective catalyst material for the MFCs practical application.