Department of Environmental and Sustainable Engineering, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, United States; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 231Q Sackett Building, University Park, PA 16802, United States.
National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, United States.
Bioresour Technol. 2019 Dec;293:122067. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.122067. Epub 2019 Aug 27.
Transition metal phosphide catalysts such as nickel phosphide (NiP) have shown excellent activities for the hydrogen evolution reaction, but they have primarily been studied in strongly acidic or alkaline electrolytes. In microbial electrolysis cells (MECs), however, the electrolyte is usually a neutral pH to support the bacteria. Carbon-supported phase-pure NiP nanoparticle catalysts (NiP/C) were synthesized using solution-phase methods and their performance was compared to Pt/C and Ni/C catalysts in MECs. The NiP/C produced a similar quantity of hydrogen over a 24 h cycle (0.29 ± 0.04 L-H/L-reactor) as that obtained using Pt/C (0.32 ± 0.03 L-H/L) or Ni/C (0.29 ± 0.02 L-H/L). The mass normalized current density of the NiP/C was 14 times higher than that of the Ni/C, and the NiP/C exhibited stable performance over 11 days. NiP/C may therefore be a useful alternative to Pt/C or other Ni-based catalysts in MECs due to its chemical stability over time.
过渡金属磷化物催化剂，如磷化镍 (NiP)，在析氢反应中表现出优异的活性，但主要在强酸或强碱电解液中进行研究。然而，在微生物电解池中 (MEC)，电解液通常为中性 pH 值，以支持细菌。采用溶液法合成了负载在碳上的相纯 NiP 纳米颗粒催化剂 (NiP/C)，并将其在 MEC 中的性能与 Pt/C 和 Ni/C 催化剂进行了比较。在 24 小时的循环中，NiP/C 产生的氢气量与使用 Pt/C (0.32 ± 0.03 L-H/L) 或 Ni/C (0.29 ± 0.02 L-H/L) 获得的氢气量相似。NiP/C 的质量归一化电流密度比 Ni/C 高 14 倍，并且在 11 天内表现出稳定的性能。因此，由于 NiP/C 随着时间的推移具有化学稳定性，它可能是 MEC 中替代 Pt/C 或其他基于 Ni 的催化剂的有用选择。
