Fabrication of blend polymer electrolyte membrane with poly (amide imide)-sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) for microbial fuel cell

Preparation of polymer blend electrolytes have been investigated by two different polymers like poly (amide imide) (PAI) - sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) by solvent casting method for microbial fuel cell (MFC) applications. The effect of SPEEK content is analyzed in terms of structural, physico-chemical, morphological, thermal and proton conductivity studies. The water uptake is higher for the membrane that exhibiting maximum proton conductivity which is in the range of 10(-3) S cm(-1). The response of the 95 wt% SPEEK in PAI based blend membrane is recorded for mixed culture and the Gram-positive anaerobic bacterium Bacillus amyloliquefaciens which have been employed first time in microbial fuel cell (MFC) and obtained the correspondent maximum power density of 60 mW m(-2) and 69 mW m(-2) using polarization studies.