Microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) use microorganisms to transform the organic waste matter into useful commodities such as direct current (DC) electricity, hydrogen, methane and alkalis. The METs are also referred as MxCs, where x denotes a specific environmental application; when x = F describes a microbial fuel cell (MFC). The anode compartment is an essential component in all these MxCs which biofilm-coated anode to oxidize the organic fraction of waste streams (e.g. municipal wastewater) and produces electric current and ionic current which are subsequently used to harvest electricity, and/or diverted to sustain the reduction reactions in the cathode compartment. To enhance the electrical performance of MxC, it is essential to optimize the material aspects of the anode. The anode should be biocompatible and possess high specific surface area, high electrical conductivity, and appropriate dimensions for macro- and meso-pores that promote microbial colonization.<br/><br/>The metals and its alloys have been successfully used as electrodes in contemporary, abiotic electrochemical devices including hydrogen fuel cells. For example, the 3D metal foams possesses exceptional properties (e.g. high surface area, porosity and 3d open structure) that promote the performance of electrochemical devices. The nickel foam has also been used as a template to grow three dimensional graphene using the chemical vapor deposition process. Nevertheless, the use of metallic structure is discouraged in biotic devices such as MxCs due to the risk for microbial induced corrosion (MICs). In case of graphene-coated nickel, defects in the graphene can aggravate metallic corrosion. In order to facilitate the use of metallic electrodes in MxCs, it is important to understand the fundamental mechanisms that influence the corrosion behavior of metals in MxCs. Here we report a study that sheds light on the corrosion behavior of nickel in a microbial fuel cell. We used non-destructive electrochemical techniques to investigate the corrosion aspects of nickel on both the spatial and temporal scales. We used the nickel foam as the anode in a two compartment microbial fuel cell

Material degradation problems with metallic electrodes in microbial, electrochemical technologies

251st National Meeting (2016)

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