Improved performance of organic–inorganic nanocomposite membrane for bioelectricity generation and wastewater treatment in microbial fuel cells

A growing demand for sustainable and green polymer membranes leads to the development of organic-inorganic based nanocomposites for various applications. In this study, the nanocomposite membranes were prepared by incorporation of nano-clay montmorillonite(MMT) into a chitosan(Cs) biopolymer matrix. Different weight ratios of Cs/MMT membranes were prepared by solution casting-solvent evaporation method and subsequently used as a proton exchange membrane in microbial fuel cells(MFC) applications. The effect of MMT addition in Cs matrix was investigated on the performance of dual-chambered MFC in terms of power generation and chemical oxygen demand(COD) removal. Among the tested membranes, Cs/MMT(1/1) showed the highest power density of 85.7 mW/m2 in comparison with neat chitosan and control Nafion of 77.2 mW/m2 and 0.7 mW/m2, respectively. The wastewater treatment efficiency for Cs/MMT(1/1) membrane was also enhanced by 1.4-and 2.5-times from neat Cs and Nafion membranes, respectively. Characterization studies such as FTIR and SEM showed the successful incorporation of MMT on Cs matrix. The decreased weight loss of Cs/MMT membranes upon the addition of MMT indicated the improved thermal stability. These tremendous improvements for performance showed that biopolymer Cs-based nanocomposite incorporated with MMT can be a candidate for alternative bio-PEM in MFC.