title: Iron-nitrogen-activated carbon as cathode catalyst to improve the power generation of single-chamber air-cathode microbial fuel cells.
abstract: In order to improve the performance of microbial fuel cell (MFC), iron-nitrogen-activated carbon (Fe-N-C) as an excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst was prepared here using commercial activated carbon (AC) as matrix and employed in single chamber MFC. In MFC, the maximum power density increased to 2437±55 mW m(-2), which was 2 times of that with AC. The open circuit potential (OCP) of Fe-N-C cathode (0.47) was much higher than that of AC cathode (0.21 V). The R0 of Fe-N-C decreased by 47% from 14.36 Ω (AC) to 7.6 Ω (Fe-N-C). From X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), pyridinic nitrogen, quaternary nitrogen and iron species were present, which played an important role in the ORR performance of Fe-N-C. These results demonstrated that the as-prepared Fe-N-C material provided a potential alternative to Pt in AC air cathode MFC for relatively desirable energy generation and wastewater treatment.
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Yajun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China. Electronic address: likx@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Kexun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Liangtao
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pu
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Di
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Tingting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D002384:Catalysis; D002606:Charcoal / Q000737:chemistry*; D004563:Electrochemistry; D004566:Electrodes; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry*; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D002606:Charcoal; D007501:Iron; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: Electrochemical catalysis; Iron–nitrogen–activated carbon; Microbial fuel cell; Oxygen reduction reaction