Jun Li, Q. Fu, Q. Liao
Oct 20, 2009
Citations
1
Influential Citations
67
Citations
Journal
Journal of Power Sources
Abstract
Abstract Potassium persulfate aqueous solution without pH adjustment is used as the cathodic electron acceptor in a two-chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) in the present study. The performance of the MFC with K 2 S 2 O 8 solution is evaluated and compared with that of K 3 Fe(CN) 6 solution. The results show that the maximum power density of the K 3 Fe(CN) 6 used MFC doubled that with K 2 S 2 O 8 solution when fresh aqueous solution is used. However, a significant increase in electrical power generation is observed in the case of the MFC with K 2 S 2 O 8 solution after 2-day operation under an external resistance of 1000 Ω. This improvement can be attributed mainly to the increased cathode performance as a result of the hydrolysis of the persulfate ion in aqueous solution. It is demonstrated that persulfate can be used as an effective cathodic electron acceptor due to its unique capability of self pH adjustment.