TY - JOUR
T1 - Iron-rich nanoparticle encapsulated, nitrogen doped porous carbon materials as efficient cathode electrocatalyst for microbial fuel cells
AU - Lu, Guolong
AU - Zhu, Youlong
AU - Lu, Lu
AU - Xu, Kongliang
AU - Wang, Heming
AU - Jin, Yinghua
AU - Jason Ren, Zhiyong
AU - Liu, Zhenning
AU - Zhang, Wei
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Science Foundation (DMR-1055705), National Natural Science Foundation of China (51375204), Jilin Provincial Science & Technology Department (20130727033YY and 20140101056JC) and Project "985" on Engineering Bionics of Jilin University. The authors thank Prof. Xiaobo Yin and Dr. Yao Zhai for the help with pyrolysis experiments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2016/5/31
Y1 - 2016/5/31
N2 - Developing efficient, readily available, and sustainable electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in neutral medium is of great importance to practical applications of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Herein, a porous nitrogen-doped carbon material with encapsulated Fe-based nanoparticles (Fe-Nx/C) has been developed and utilized as an efficient ORR catalyst in MFCs. The material was obtained through pyrolysis of a highly porous organic polymer containing iron(II) porphyrins. The characterizations of morphology, crystalline structure and elemental composition reveal that Fe-Nx/C consists of well-dispersed Fe-based nanoparticles coated by N-doped graphitic carbon layer. ORR catalytic performance of Fe-Nx/C has been evaluated through cyclic voltammetry and rotating ring-disk electrode measurements, and its application as a cathode electrocatalyst in an air-cathode single-chamber MFC has been investigated. Fe-Nx/C exhibits comparable or better performance in MFCs than 20% Pt/C, displaying higher cell voltage (601 mV vs. 591 mV), maximum power density (1227 mW m−2 vs. 1031 mW m−2) and Coulombic efficiency (50% vs. 31%). These findings indicate that Fe-Nx/C is more tolerant and durable than Pt/C in a system with bacteria metabolism and thus holds great potential for practical MFC applications.
AB - Developing efficient, readily available, and sustainable electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in neutral medium is of great importance to practical applications of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Herein, a porous nitrogen-doped carbon material with encapsulated Fe-based nanoparticles (Fe-Nx/C) has been developed and utilized as an efficient ORR catalyst in MFCs. The material was obtained through pyrolysis of a highly porous organic polymer containing iron(II) porphyrins. The characterizations of morphology, crystalline structure and elemental composition reveal that Fe-Nx/C consists of well-dispersed Fe-based nanoparticles coated by N-doped graphitic carbon layer. ORR catalytic performance of Fe-Nx/C has been evaluated through cyclic voltammetry and rotating ring-disk electrode measurements, and its application as a cathode electrocatalyst in an air-cathode single-chamber MFC has been investigated. Fe-Nx/C exhibits comparable or better performance in MFCs than 20% Pt/C, displaying higher cell voltage (601 mV vs. 591 mV), maximum power density (1227 mW m−2 vs. 1031 mW m−2) and Coulombic efficiency (50% vs. 31%). These findings indicate that Fe-Nx/C is more tolerant and durable than Pt/C in a system with bacteria metabolism and thus holds great potential for practical MFC applications.
KW - Electrocatalyst
KW - Microbial fuel cell
KW - Nitrogen-doped carbon
KW - Oxygen reduction reaction
KW - Porous organic polymer
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2016.03.028
DO - 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2016.03.028
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84977618269
SN - 0378-7753
VL - 315
SP - 302
EP - 307
JO - Journal of Power Sources
JF - Journal of Power Sources
ER -