Novel proton conducting polymer electrolyte and its application in microbial fuel cell

Abstract The present work aimed the realization of plasticized polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) which comprises of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), sulfamic acid (SA) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a separator for the replacement of nafion membranes used in a microbial fuel cell (MFC). PEG was used as plasticizer. Electrical conductivity studies were carried out to investigate the suitability of the polymer electrolytes as a separator for MFC. The highest conductivity was calculated as 1.32×10 −6 S cm −1 for the plasticized polymer electrolyte membrane at 303 K. Investigations were made to analyze the efficacy of PVA–SA–PEG membranes as separator for MFC. The performance of MFC with PVA–SA–PEG separator was analyzed by polarization studies, COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) removal rate and coulombic efficiency. MFC's with nafion membrane as separator was used as the reference. The power output of MFC with PVA–SA–PEG separator was found to be comparable with the power yield of MFC with nafion separator. The PVA–SA–PEG membrane was identified as a promising separator for MFC applications due to its performance in terms of yield besides decreasing the cost of installation.