Carbon cloth/nickel cobaltite (NiCo2O4)/polyaniline (PANI) composite electrodes: Preparation, characterization, and application in microbial fuel cells

Abstract The process of electron transfer through the electrodes of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) used for wastewater treatment has remarkable effects on power generation and pollutant degradation. In this work, we report a carbon cloth-based composite material with effectively improved electrochemical properties resulting from surface modifications with two redox species, namely nickel cobaltite (NiCo2O4) and a conductive polymer (PANI), through a hydrothermal method and the electropolymerization technique, respectively. The physicochemical characteristics and electrochemical behaviour of the surface-modified electrodes were investigated. The decolorization efficiency of the modified carbon cloth electrodes was investigated in H-shaped Pseudomonas-catalyzed microbial fuel cells using synthetic wastewater with an azo dye. Among the different electrode combinations, the NiCo2O4/PANI/CC (cathode)-carbon cloth (anode) pair exhibited the best performance with the highest power density (12.19 ± 0.59 mW/m2). Similarly, PANI/CC (anode) and CC (cathode) also showed improved MFC performance (5.66 ± 0.39 mW/m2).