title: Superiority of boron, nitrogen and iron ternary doped carbonized graphene oxide-based catalysts for oxygen reduction in microbial fuel cells.
abstract: The exploration of highly active and cost-effective catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction is vitally important to facilitate the improvement of metal-air batteries and fuel cells. Herein, super-active catalysts made from an interesting metal-polymer network (MPN) that consist of Fe-Nx-C, B-N and Fe3O4/Fe3C alloys were prepared via facile one-pot carbonization. The achieved catalysts possessed an amazing porous structure that was derived from the MPN with the assistance of a "bubble-template". Remarkably, the content of highly active Fe-Nx-C can be regulated by introducing graphene, and the ORR activity of the catalyst was enhanced dramatically with an increase in the Fe3O4/Fe3C alloy content. The most active BNFe-C-G2 catalyst exhibited superior ORR activity/stability, and was then employed as an air cathode electrocatalyst in a microbial fuel cell. The results showed that the output voltage and power density of BNFe-C-G2 were significantly improved to 575 ± 11 mV and 1046.2 ± 35 mW m-2, respectively. These values are 4.5% and 44.44% higher than those of commercial Pt/C. Thus, due to the synergistic electrocatalysis of the Fe-Nx-C, B-N and Fe3O4/Fe3C alloys, the super-active and low-cost BNFe-C-G2 material should be a promising ORR catalyst for application in biofuel cells, and in many other energy conversion and storage devices.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancun North First Street 2, Beijing 100190, China. weill@iccas.ac.cn jqshen@iccas.ac.cn and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancun North First Street 2, Beijing 100190, China. weill@iccas.ac.cn jqshen@iccas.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Liling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancun North First Street 2, Beijing 100190, China. weill@iccas.ac.cn jqshen@iccas.ac.cn and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancun North First Street 2, Beijing 100190, China. weill@iccas.ac.cn jqshen@iccas.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Jianquan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shen