An investigation into polymer blending, plasticization and cross-linking effect on the performance of chitosan-based com
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ORIGINAL PAPER
An investigation into polymer blending, plasticization and cross-linking effect on the performance of chitosan-based composite proton exchange membranes for microbial fuel cell applications Narangarav Terbish 1 & Ching-Hwa Lee 1
&
Srinivasa R. Popuri 2 & Lakshmi P. Nalluri 1
Received: 23 April 2020 / Accepted: 17 August 2020 # The Polymer Society, Taipei 2020
Abstract Chitosan (Cs) is one of the biopolymers increasingly employed to prepare proton exchange membranes (PEMs) in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). In this work, Cs is blended with three other natural or synthetic biopolymers including alginate (Alg), carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) followed by cross-linking/ plasticization with phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, 3-(Trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate (TMSPM), and glycerol (Gly), techniques have been examined as enhancement to neat Cs PEM in MFC system. The obtained membranes were characterized by FTIR, XRD, FESEM, mechanical properties, sorption study, and cation exchange capacity studies. The performance of the cross-linked and plasticized blended Cs membranes was evaluated in bio-power production and COD removal with municipal wastewater as an anolyte in the typical 2-chambered MFCs. The performance of MFC attached Cs PEM with the power density of 237 mW/m3 was increased up to 365 mW/m3 when it installed Cs/Alg. Therefore, after plasticization, power densities were decreased; however, COD removal of 23% for Cs/Alg membrane was increased up to 88% for phosphoric acid cross-linked Cs/Alg. The results confirm that this material could be a promising enhanced alternative to neat Cs, as a PEM in MFCs. Keywords Chitosan . Alginate . Plasticizer . Cross-linking . Proton exchange membrane . Microbial fuel cell
Introduction Developing human life standard and activities have been led to increase use of natural energy sources. Due to the most of conventional energy production utilize fossil fuels which are
* Ching-Hwa Lee [email protected] Narangarav Terbish [email protected] Srinivasa R. Popuri [email protected] Lakshmi P. Nalluri [email protected] 1
Department of Environmental Engineering, Da-Yeh University, Changhua 51591, Taiwan, Republic of China
2
Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus 11000, Barbados
non-eco-friendly and depleted resource, researchers have been made huge of efforts to find out alternative sustainable sources of energy generation. On that subject, bioelectricity generation through microbial fuel cells using various materials and substrates including wastewater have been explored widely [1–3]. Renewable energy trapping from organic waste promoted energy production simultaneously accomplishing wastewater treatment. MFC, that has capacity to generate green electricity, suggests promising expectation in developing environmental sustainability [4]. It utilizes the presence of electrochemically active microorganisms as catalysts, oxidizing then converting the chemical
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