Brush-like polyaniline nanoarray modified anode for improvement of power output in microbial fuel cell

Carbon cloth with brush-like polyaniline (BL-PANI) nanowire arrays generated on the surface was utilized as anode material in this study to improve the power output of MFCs. A novel pulsed voltage method was applied to fabricate BL-PANI with PANI nanowires of similar to 230 nm of length. By using BL-PANI modified carbon cloth as anode, the power output was improved by 58.1% and 36.1% compared to that of plain carbon cloth and PANI modified carbon cloth with ordinary structure, respectively. Electrochemical tests revealed that both electron transfer resistance and charge transfer resistance were decreased owing to high specific area for microbes' growth and diffusion of charged species. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.