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 -