title: Immobilization of a Metal-Nitrogen-Carbon Catalyst on Activated Carbon with Enhanced Cathode Performance in Microbial Fuel Cells.
abstract: Applications of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are limited in part by low power densities mainly due to cathode performance. Successful immobilization of an Fe-N-C co-catalyst on activated carbon (Fe-N-C/AC) improved the oxygen reduction reaction to nearly a four-electron transfer, compared to a twoelectron transfer achieved using AC. With acetate as the fuel, the maximum power density was 4.7±0.2 W m(-2) , which is higher than any previous report for an air-cathode MFC. With domestic wastewater as a fuel, MFCs with the Fe-N-C/AC cathode produced up to 0.8±0.03 W m(-2) , which was twice that obtained with a Pt-catalyzed cathode. The use of this Fe-N-C/AC catalyst can therefore substantially increase power production, and enable broader applications of MFCs for renewable electricity generation using waste materials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Wulin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, United States. blogan@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Bruce E
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7478-8070
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Logan
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D002384:Catalysis; D002606:Charcoal / Q000737:chemistry*; D004563:Electrochemistry; D004566:Electrodes; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry*; D010984:Platinum / Q000737:chemistry; D013499:Surface Properties; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D002606:Charcoal; D007501:Iron; D009584:Nitrogen; D010984:Platinum; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: air cathode; electrochemistry; microbial fuel cell; oxygen reduction reaction; supported catalysts