Membran Polistirena Tersulfonasi untuk Aplikasi pada Microbial Fuel Cell

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a major type of bielectrochemical system that converts biomass spontaneously into electricity through the activity of microorganisms. The sulfonated polystyrene (PSS) membrane can be used as a proton exchange membrane (PEM) in application on MFC. PEM has been characterized on PSS using fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and degree of sulfonation (DS) parameter, and conductivity value. The result of FTIR analysis in 10% PSS membranes showed sulfonate group (SO3) absorption at wavenumber 1029.39 and 1178.03 cm-1. PSS membrane surface morphology based on SEM is categorized non-porous. The success of the sulfonated process indicated by the DS of the membranes of sulfonated PSS 3%, 5%, and 10% were 35.09%, 42.27%, and 48.15%, respectively. The result of the conductivity (σ) value obtained by PS, PSS 3%, PSS 5%, and PSS 10% were 1.1455×10-8, 1.5511×10-6, 3.0919×10-6, and 3.8949×10-6 S.cm-1, respectively. MFC performance showed the presence of microbe in cow’s rumen liquid with total plate count. The membranes of PSS 3%, 5%, and 10% can produce different potential of 9, 10, and 14 mV respectively, meaning that the PSS membrane can be applied as a MFC