Development and application of vanadium oxide/polyaniline composite as a novel cathode catalyst in microbial fuel cell

SUMMARY Polyaniline (Pani), vanadium oxide (V 2 O 5 ), and Pani/V 2 O 5 nanocomposite were fabricated and applied as a cathode catalyst in Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) as an alternative to Pt (Platinum), which is a commonly used expensive cathode catalyst. The cathode catalysts were characterized using Cyclic Voltammetry and Linear Sweep Voltammetry to determine their oxygen reduction activity; furthermore, their structures were observed by X‐ray Diffraction, X‐ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, and Field‐Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy. The results showed that Pani/V 2 O 5 produced a power density of 79.26 mW/m 2 , which is higher than V 2 O 5 by 65.31 mW/m 2 and Pani by 42.4 mW/m 2 . Furthermore, the Coulombic Efficiency of the system using Pani/V 2 O 5 (16%) was higher than V 2 O 5 and Pani by 9.2 and 5.5%, respectively. Pani–V 2 O 5 also produced approximately 10% more power than Pt, the best and most common cathode catalyst. It declares that Pani–V 2 O 5 can be a suitable alternative for application in a MFC system. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.