Stainless steel-based materials for energy generation and storage in bioelectrochemical systems applications

Bioanodes were developed on stainless steel (SS)-based materials for energy generation and storage in bioelectrochemical systems (BES). Bioanode performances were studied in half-cells at poised potential of -0.2 V vs Ag/AgCl. Flame oxidised SS (FO-SS), reduced graphene oxide SS (rGO-SS), magnetite SS (Mag-SS) and Mag-FOSS achieved current densities of 0.78 mA cm-2, 0.72, 0.54 and 0.45 mA cm-2, respectively. Modified SS material showed improved startup time and biocompatibility compared to unmodified SS. In addition, in charge/discharge mode, Mag-SS and Mag-FO-SS showed promising results for energy storage, as they led to an increase of the current densities measured by respectively 24.5 ± 0.6% and 57.5 ± 7.9% compared to these recorded during the chronoamperometry experiments. This indicates that stainless steel based materials are promising anode materials for scale-up bioelectrochemical systems.