Novel crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer membrane as a separator in microbial fuel cell
1. INTRODUCTION Microbial fuel cell (MFC) has emerged as a promising technology for energy recovery by microorganisms (Rabaey, 2005 ; Logan, 2009). Separator is an essential part of the MFC and significantly influences the MFC performance. In the past decade, a variety of separators have been extensively explored for MFCs, including ion exchange membranes, size-selective separators, J-Cloth, glass fiber and so on . However, these separators may be too expensive, or induce pH gradients problems or increase the internal resistance, or may be biodegradable. Therefore, it is essential to explore cheaper and more efficient separator materials. Commercial poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is usually derived from poly (vinyl acetate) and cost effective as well as non-biodegradable. It was reported that the alkaline Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) using the crosslinked PVA/SSA solid polymer membrane showed excellent electrochemical performance at ambient temperature and pressure (Yang et al, 2006). However, so far little information has been available to investigate the performance of crosslinked PVA membrane in the MFC. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the feasibility to use the crosslinked PVA polymer membrane as a novel separator in the MFC. We compared the performance of the PVA/SSA membranes with PEM and AEM.
Yanping Hou Guangli Liu Renduo Zhang Bangyu Qin
School of Environmental Science and Engineering ,Sun Yat-Sen University , Guangzhou ,Guangdong 510275, China
国际会议
北京
英文
81-82
2011-11-24（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）