Recent advances in the separators for microbial fuel cells.
Separator plays an important role in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Despite of the rapid development of separators in recent years, there are remaining barriers such as proton transfer limitation and oxygen leakage, which increase the internal resistance and decrease the MFC performance, and thus limit the practical application of MFCs. In this review, various separator materials, including cation exchange membrane, anion exchange membrane, bipolar membrane, microfiltration membrane, ultrafiltration membranes, porous fabrics, glass fibers, J-Cloth and salt bridge, are systematically compared. In addition, recent progresses in separator configuration, especially the development of separator electrode assemblies, are summarized. The advances in separator materials and configurations have opened up new promises to overcome these limitations, but challenges remain for the practical application. Here, an outlook for future development and scaling-up of MFC separators is presented and some suggestions are highlighted.
Li
Wen-Wei
WW
Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
Sheng
Guo-Ping
GP
Liu
Xian-Wei
XW
Yu
Han-Qing
HQ
D000838:Anions; D001419:Bacteria / Q000737:chemistry; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology / Q000639:trends*; D002412:Cations; D004566:Electrodes; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008832:Microchemistry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000639:trends; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry; D011522:Protons; D012492:Salts; D014462:Ultrafiltration
D000838:Anions; D002412:Cations; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011522:Protons; D012492:Salts; D010100:Oxygen