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ABSTRACT
Current trends in fuel cell reliant energy technologies are rapidly growing to meet the modern global environmental and sustainability concerns. Among different types of fuel cells developed so far, polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell revealed benefits of low price, high efficiency, and environmental safety. To attain further ecological and sustainable aspects, green nanomaterials have been developed to design electrodes, electrolytes, as well as membrane electrode assembly of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. Consequently, as bioelectricity source, microbial fuel cells or bioreactors have been focused for safe energy production and conversion through biowastes and microbial/anaerobic conditions. Use of green nanocomposites in microbial fuel cell electrolyte membrane, electrode, and membrane electrode assembly has brought about new revolutions in this field. Keeping in view the next energy trends, this cutting-edge review is designed to portray the synthesis, characteristics, and potential of green nanocomposites in microbial fuel cell components. Literature has been investigated for the effect of the incorporation of green polymer/nanoparticle-based electrodes/electrolytes/catalysts and synthesis approaches to attain superior electrochemical features, power/current density, power output, proton conductivity, ion-exchange capacity, and fuel cell efficiency. Besides, principle/mechanism of microbial fuel cell functioning, challenges, and significant prospects have been covered in this innovative attempt.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
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Ayesha Kausar
Dr. Ayesha Kausar is currently affiliated with NPU-NCP joint international research center on Advanced Nanomaterials and Defects engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University Xi’an, China and UNESCO-UNISA Africa Chair in Nanosciences/Nanotechnology, iThemba LABS, Somerset West, South Africa. Her current research interests include design, fabrication, characterization, and structure-property relationship/potential explorations of nanocomposites, polymeric nanocomposites, hybrid materials, nanoparticles, carbon nanoparticles (graphene, fullerene, carbon nanotube, nanodiamond, etc.), nanofibers, nano-foams, and related nanostructures/ nanomaterials. Dr. Kausar has contributed 7 books (authored monographs), > 90 book chapters/encyclopedias, and more than 580 publications to the field of nano/materials sciences and technology, so far.