Calcined polyaniline-iron composite as a high efficient cathodic catalyst in microbial fuel cells.
A new type of carbon-nitrogen-metal catalyst, PANI-Fe-C, was synthesized by calcination process. According to the results of FT-IR and XPS analysis, polyaniline chain was broken by calcination. Small nitrogen-contained molecular fragments were gasified during calcination process, while the remaining nitrogen atoms were enchased in the new produced multiple carbon rings by C-N and CN bonds and performed as the catalytic active sites and the covalent centers for soluble iron components. Calculated from the polarization curves, a maximum power density of 10.17W/m(3) for the MFC with the synthetic catalyst was obtained, which was slightly higher than the MFC with Pt/C catalyst of 9.56W/m(3). All the results obtained in this paper proved that the newly synthetic nitrogen-carbon-metal catalyst would be a potential alternative to the expensive Pt/C catalyst in the field of MFC.
National Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Bin
B
Lai
Peng
P
Wang
Haoran
H
Li
Zhuwei
Z
Du
Lijuan
L
Wang
Sichao
S
Bi
D000814:Aniline Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology*; D002384:Catalysis; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006358:Hot Temperature; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry*
D000814:Aniline Compounds; C416807:polyaniline; D007501:Iron