Quantum dots decorated photoanodes in bioelectrochemical fuel cells: Enhanced electricity generation using green algae

Abstract

The power performance of the bio-electrochemical fuel cells (BEFCs) depends mainly on the energy harvesting ability of the anode material. The anode materials with low bandgap energy and high electrochemical stability are highly desirable in the BEFCs. To address this issue, a novel anode is designed using indium tin oxide (ITO) modified by chromium oxide quantum dots (CQDs). The CQDs were synthesized using facile and advanced pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) technique. The combination of ITO and CQDs improved the optical properties of the photoanode by exhibiting a broad range of absorption in the visible to UV region.A systematic study has been performed to optimize the amount of CQDs and green Algae (Alg) film grown using the drop casting method. Chlorophyll (a, b, and total) content of algal cultures (with different concentrations) were optimized to investigate the power generation performance of each cell. The BEFC cell (ITO/ Alg10/Cr3//Carbon) with optimized amounts of Alg and CQDs demonstrated enhanced photocurrent generation of 120 mA cm −2 at a photo-generated potential of 24.6 V m −2 . The same device exhibited a maximum power density of 7 W m −2 under continuous light illumination. The device also maintained 98% of its initial performance after 30 repeated cycles of light on-off measurements.