Bioresource Technology, Vol.195, 96-101, 2015
Liquid crystal polaroid glass electrode from e-waste for synchronized removal/recovery of Cr+6 from wastewater by microbial fuel cell
This study demonstrates the use of Liquid Crystal coated Polaroid Glass Electrode (LCPGE) material collected from disposed liquid-crystal display (LCD) computer monitor as electrodes in microbial fuel cell (MFC) for the simultaneous reduction/recovery of Cr+6 from chromium wastewater. Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FT-IR) confirms the presence of NH2, C equivalent to N, C=O and O-C and/or C-O-C functional groups in LCPGE. An excellent electrochemical performance with distinct redox peaks were observed in cyclic voltammetry test (100 mV/s). The maximum current density of 110 mA/m(2) (10 mW/m(2)) was achieved by operating MFC in batch mode. At the cathode LCPGE (10.5 cm(2)) interface, toxic Cr+6 ions readily accepted electrons and formed nontoxic Cr2O3 as confirmed by FT-IR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis. Moreover, electrochemical impedance analysis shows that bacteria were readily attached to the surface of LCPGE (10.5 cm(2)) within 24 h in a Bioelectrochemical System (BES). (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Liquid crystal;Hexavalent chromium;E-waste;Conducting polaroid glass;Microbial fuel cell (MFC)