Enhancement of Electricity Generation by a Microbial Fuel Cell Using a Highly Active Non-Precious-Metal Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Composite Catalyst Cathode

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• 作者：Gregory Ryan Dong ; Hamid-Reza Kariminia ; Zhongwei W. Chen ; Wayne Parker ; Mark D. Pritzker ; Raymond L. Legge
• 刊名：Energy & Fuels
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 19, 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：31
• 期：1
• 页码：959-967
• 全文大小：489K
• ISSN：1520-5029

文摘

As microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology continues to gain momentum toward commercialization, the replacement of traditionally used platinum for oxygen reduction with an inexpensive catalyst becomes more important. A nonprecious nitrogen-doped carbon composite catalyst with previous applications in PEM fuel cells is demonstrated for the first time in a single-chamber air cathode MFC with comparisons to a similar platinum-based MFC. The performance of the MFC is compared with a similar MFC using a platinum catalyst and acetate feed. When the platinum is replaced with the catalyst loaded at the surface of the proton exchange membrane (loading density of 1 mg/cm²), MFC operation outperforms a similar platinum-based cell. The synthesized catalyst produced 213.2 ± 13.9 mW/m² power density that on average is 151% higher than that for the platinum catalyst. Columbic efficiency was also higher as a result at 6.71 ± 0.88%. A 2-fold increase in the loading density (2 mg/cm²) for the synthesized catalyst resulted in a 305% increase in the generated power compared to the platinum catalyst. This suggests that the nonprecious nitrogen-doped carbon composite is a potentially attractive replacement for conventional platinum as a catalyst for energy production by MFCs.