Vitamin-C-enabled reduced graphene oxide chemistry for tuning biofilm phenotypes of methylotrophs on nickel electrodes in microbial fuel cells

Abstract This study reports the use of multi-layered reduced graphene oxide (rGO) coating on porous nickel foam (NF) electrodes for enhancing biofilm growth of Rhodobacter Sphaeroides spp fed with methanol in microbial fuel cells (CH3OH-MFCs). Electrochemical methods were used to assess the methylotrophic activity on rGO/NF electrodes. The power density and current density offered by rGO/NF (1200 mW m-2 and 680 mA m-2) were 220-fold and 540-fold higher compared to bare NF (5.50 mW m-2 and 1.26 mA m-2), respectively. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results show that rGO/NF suppresses charge transfer resistance to CH3OH oxidation by 40-fold compared to the control. This improved performance is due to the ability of rGO coatings to decrease the wetting contact angle (improve the hydrophilicity) of NF from 1280 to 00. A preliminary cost analysis was carried out to assess the viability of rGO/NF electrodes via vitamin-C-enabled graphene oxide chemistry for CH3OH-MFCs applications.