Fabrication of cation exchange membrane for microbial fuel cells

Abstract

In this study the cation exchange membranes(CEM) were fabricated using 3 different compositions of sulphonated poly vinyl alcohol (SPVA) and phosphorylated graphene oxide(PGO) in weight ratios by physicalmixing and casting method. Loading of PGO in the SPVA improvedwater uptake property which signifies increase in ion exchange capacity(IEC) and proton conductivity as presence of acidic groups were characterized. These fabricated membranes performances were assessed in microbial fuel cells(MFCs) and characterized using XRD and FTIR for its compositional analysis. Due to proper proton conducting channelsmost suitable CEM (SPVA-PGO-3) revealed higher proton conductivity 9.0 x 10-2 S/cm at 27oC, water uptake 114%, area swelling 54.2% and ion exchange capacity (IEC) 1.92 meq/g. The power density obtained for this composite membrane applied in MFC-3 was observed to be 503.1 mW/m2 while the COD removal results obtained as 80.8 %.