A novel hybrid anion exchange membrane for high performance microbial fuel cells

A novel titanium dioxide (TiO2)–quaternized poly(vinyl alcohol) (QAPVA) hybrid anion exchange membrane (T membrane) is prepared, and its feasibility for use in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is investigated in this study. Compared with proton membranes, such as Nafion 117 (N membrane) and an anion exchange membrane (AEM) LeHoAM-III (L membrane), the T membrane exhibits much better performance in MFCs. The oxygen mass transfer coefficient (Ko) of the T membrane (0.05 × 10−4 cm s−1) is one order of magnitude less than that of the N membrane (Ko = 0.3 × 10−4 cm s−1), resulting in reduced substrate loss and increased columbic efficiency (CE) for the MFC with the T membrane. The output voltage and power density of a MFC with the T membrane is higher than cells containing the other two membranes. The CE of the MFC with the T membrane is 1.36 times that of the N membrane and 1.4 times that of the L membrane. The maximum power density of the MFCs obtained was 125.4, 65.0 and 35.6 mW m−2 for the T, N and L membranes, respectively. The results of this study indicate that this new membrane has the potential to substitute for the Nafion membrane in MFCs.