TEHARN - Iranian researchers have developed dual-purpose electrode materials that could help address the challenge of storing electricity generated from renewable sources such as solar and wind power.
The research was conducted by Maryam Farahmand-Habibi during her postdoctoral studies at the University of Gilan, focusing on the “design and development of dual-purpose electrodes for simultaneous application in microbial fuel cells and supercapacitors.”
“Decreasing non-renewable energy resources, environmental degradation and the need to develop energy storage systems have made research and development in energy conversion and storage technologies increasingly important,” Farahmand-Habibi was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.
Microbial fuel cells are an emerging technology that uses microorganisms to break down organic matter and simultaneously convert the chemical energy contained in it into electricity, she explained.
Farahmand-Habibi stressed that the performance of both technologies depends heavily on the properties of their electrodes.
“The electrochemical properties of microbial fuel cells and supercapacitors are strongly dependent on the characteristics of the electrode used,” she said. “Therefore, designing and developing new high-performance electrode materials is one of the fundamental requirements for expanding the applications of these technologies.”
The research, she said, focuses on dual-purpose electrocatalysts that can perform two different functions.
They can facilitate the oxygen reduction reaction, a key process in microbial fuel cells, while also providing energy-storage capabilities when used in supercapacitors, she noted.
The team also focused on engineering the structure and morphology of the electrodes to improve their performance.
“Structure and morphology engineering of electrode materials plays an important role in enhancing their efficiency,” Farahmand-Habibi said. “For this reason, efforts have been made to design and fabricate electrodes with porous structures and high specific surface areas and to evaluate their performance in applications related to microbial fuel cells and supercapacitors.”
The development could be particularly relevant to renewable energy systems, where electricity generation from sources such as solar and wind naturally fluctuates.
“Electricity generation from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal energy is always accompanied by the challenge of energy storage because of their natural fluctuations,” she said.
She noted that developing effective and economically viable electrocatalysts based on non-precious metals has consequently become an important direction in recent research.
Dual-purpose electrocatalysts could offer several advantages over conventional systems by reducing costs and system complexity, improving equipment durability and flexibility, and allowing a single electrode to perform multiple functions, she said.