Yang Wulin, Logan Bruce E
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, United States.
ChemSusChem. 2016 Aug 23;9(16):2226-32. doi: 10.1002/cssc.201600573. Epub 2016 Jul 15.
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.
微生物燃料电池（MFC）的应用在一定程度上受到低功率密度的限制，这主要归因于阴极性能。与使用活性炭（AC）实现的两电子转移相比，成功地将铁 - 氮 - 碳（Fe-N-C）共催化剂固定在活性炭上（Fe-N-C/AC）使氧还原反应改善为接近四电子转移。以醋酸盐为燃料时，最大功率密度为4.7±0.2 W m⁻²，高于此前关于空气阴极MFC的任何报道。以生活污水为燃料时，具有Fe-N-C/AC阴极的MFC产生的功率高达0.8±0.03 W m⁻²，是使用铂催化阴极时的两倍。因此，使用这种Fe-N-C/AC催化剂可大幅提高发电量，并使MFC在利用废料进行可再生发电方面有更广泛的应用。
