In this work, the use of lithium niobate (LiNbO₃), a ferroelectric and photocatalyst material, is investigated as a new type of cathode catalyst for wastewater-fed single-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Carbon cloth electrodes coated with LiNbO₃ were studied with and without UV–vis irradiation to assess its photocatalytic behavior in these devices. The synthesized phase of LiNbO₃ was characterized by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, particle size distribution, and transmission electron microscopy analyses. The MFC containing a LiNbO₃-based cathode exhibited a maximum open circuit potential and power output of 400 mV and 131 mW/m³, respectively, under irradiation. This cathode configuration also achieved the maximum chemical oxygen demand removal of 84% after 120 h of MFC operation. These results show that ferroelectric materials such as LiNbO₃ could be used as cathode catalysts in MFC devices. As a complementary analysis, the removal of the heavy metals detected in the wastewater was also monitored.

在这项工作中，研究了铌酸锂（LiNbO ₃），一种铁电和光催化剂材料，作为一种新型的阴极废水处理单腔微生物燃料电池（MFCs）阴极催化剂。研究了在有和没有UV-vis照射下涂有LiNbO _3的碳布电极，以评估其在这些设备中的光催化行为。LiNbO ₃的合成相通过X射线衍射，差示扫描量热法，粒度分布和透射电子显微镜分析进行表征。包含基于LiNbO ₃的阴极的MFC表现出最大的开路电势和400 mV和131 mW / m ^3的功率输出分别在照射下。在MFC运行120小时后，该阴极配置还实现了84％的最大化学需氧量去除。这些结果表明，诸如LiNbO _3的铁电材料可以用作MFC装置中的阴极催化剂。作为补充分析，还监测了废水中检测到的重金属的去除。