Abstract—Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) are a promising technology that can simultaneously address recent energy shortages and wastewater treatment problems for freshwater production. Recently, inexpensive Pt-free catalysts have been investigated to improve the cathode performance of MFCs. In this study, birnessite manganese oxide intercalated a cobalt (Co-MnO₂) catalyst to make the cathode sterilizable. The use of a bactericidal cathode is expected to improve output by suppressing electron transfer from microorganisms to the cathode, which is the cause of MFC performance degradation, and by eliminating the separator that limits proton transfer. The MFC with Co-MnO₂ catalyst on the cathode achieved a maximum power density of 110 μW/cm². In addition, the function of the Co-MnO₂ catalyst did not degrade for at least 158 days.

Keywords—microbial fuel cell, MnO₂, separator-free, sterilization

Cite: Kaisei Shiraki, Soichiro Hirose, Trang Nakamoto, Kozo Taguchi, "Sterilization and Long-Term Stability of Cobalt Intercalated MnO₂ Catalyst in the Cathode of Separator-Free Microbial Fuel Cells," International Journal of Smart Grid and Clean Energy, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 125-131, 2024.

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