Utilization of superhydrophilic metallosurfactant electrocatalyst for enhanced cathodic oxygen reduction reaction in Microbial Fuel Cell

The microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have the ability to produce clean energy from waste, but the process needs to be more sustainable, cost effective, durable and scalable. A Palladium metallosurfactant PdDDAB (Didodecyldimethylammonium palladium bromide dichloride) based super-hydrophilic bilayered film is developed on carbon cloth (CC) as Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) cathode catalyst for microbial fuel cell using one step hydrothermal approach. At an optimized concentration (1.5 mM), catalyst shows a higher increase in the current density, a thousand fold rise in the exchange current density. Moreover, 60 times reduced polarisation resistance than bare CC and decreased tafel slope is observed. The PdDDAB-coated electrode exhibits a more positive onset potential and retains 90.8 % initial current density for 24 h showing remarkable stability against ORR. The enhanced catalytic performance in ORR is due to formation of uniform bilayered lamellar membrane with super-hydrophilic behavior, arising from the synergistic effect of electrochemical properties of Pd and the surface characteristics of DDAB surfactant. The catalyst also demonstrates 150 % higher current density (471.8 mA/m²) in single-chamber MFCs with Pseudomonas Aeruginosa compared to bare CC electrode (187.7 mA/m²).