Power production enhancement with polyaniline composite anode in benthic microbial fuel cells

In this study, conductive polymer polyaniline (PANI) is employed to modify the anodes of benthic microbial fuel cells (BMFC). Four electrochemical methods are used to synthesize the polyaniline anodes; the results show that the PANI modification, especially the pulse potential method for PANI synthesis could obviously improve the cell energy output and reduce the anode internal resistance. The anode is modified by PANI doped with Fe or Mn to further improve the BMFC performance. A maximum power density of 17.51 mW/m² is obtained by PANI-Fe anode BMFC, which is 8.1 times higher than that of control. The PANI-Mn anode BMFC also gives a favorable maximum power density (16.78 mW/m²). Fe or Mn modification has better effect in improving the conductivity of polyaniline, thus improving the energy output of BMFCs. This work applying PANI composite anode into BMFC brings new development prospect and could promote the practical application of BMFC.