Performance evaluation of poly(aniline-co-pyrrole) wrapped titanium dioxide nanocomposite as an air-cathode catalyst material for microbial fuel cell

A simple, inexpensive in situ oxidative polymerization of aniline and pyrrole using ammonium persulfate (APS) as oxidant and hydrochloric acid (HCl) as dopant has been used to synthesize a hybrid (PAni-Co-PPy)@TiO2 nanocomposite with titanium oxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) wrapped into (PAni-Co-PPy) copolymer. The synthesized nanocomposite has been shown with higher oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) as an excellent cathode material for higher performance in the complex of (PAni-Co-PPy)(+)/TiO2(O-). The charge transport phenomenon between TiO2 and (PAni-Co-PPy)(+) were found adequate with subsequent delocalization of electron/s at PAni and PPy. The self-doping nature of TiO2 (O-) played a vital role in oxygen adsorption and desorption process. With higher electrical conductivity and surface area, these were tested in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for ORRs at cathode. This yielded a relatively higher current and power density output as compared to PAni@TiO2, PPy@TiO2, and commercially available Pt/C cathode catalysts in MFC system. In overall, the prepared (PAni-Co-PPy)@TiO2 nano-hybrid cathode delivered similar to 2.03 fold higher power density as compared to Pt/C catalyst, i.e. similar to 987.36 +/- 49 mW/m(2) against similar to 481.02 +/- 24 mW/m(2). The properties of electro-catalysts established an improved synergetic effect between TiO2 NPs and (PAni-Co-PPy). In effect, the enhanced surface area and electrochemical properties of the prepared (PAni-Co-PPy)@TiO2 nano-hybrid system is depicted here as an effective cathode catalyst in MFCs for improved performance.