Performance of cobalt oxide/carbon cloth composite electrode in energy generation from dairy wastewater using microbial fuel cells

The use of non-noble metal catalyst as electrode for energy harvesting device have drawn great deal of attention owing to its distinct features. In this work, cobalt oxide has been directly fabricated on carbon cloth substrates using simple cost effective Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction. Cobalt oxide synthesized from Co (II) nitrate and NaOH was used as the electrode for generation of electricity from dairy wastes using Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC). Electrochemical characteristics such as cyclic voltammetry have been carried out for the cobalt oxide/carbon cloth and the obtained results are found to be a good alternative for platinum catalyst. A current of 0.15 mA was obtained at an external resistance of 2 k Omega. A single cell prototype of double chamber MFC is designed and the performance analysis is carried out in this work.