Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Recycling, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310012, China E-mail:
Water Sci Technol. 2019 Oct;80(8):1399-1406. doi: 10.2166/wst.2019.344.
Searching for efficient and inexpensive catalysts to replace precious metal-based catalyst in air-cathode microbial fuel cells is crucial for the practical application and commercialization in wastewater treatment and energy generation. Here, through a simple pyrolysis process, sewage sludge could be converted into carbon material with hierarchically porous structure, which demonstrates oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalytic performance. Subsequently, co-doping Mn and N species on the carbonized sewage sludge matrix could further improve the ORR catalytic performance, which even demonstrates comparable performance to the commercial expensive Pt/C catalyst in air-cathode microbial fuels cells (MFC). The highest maximum power density of MFC with Mn-N/SC air-cathode is as high as 1,120 mW m, which is similar to the power density of the air-cathode MFC equipped commercialized Pt/C catalyst (1,240 mW m). Considering the simple operation, significant cost-saving and easy scale-up of the proposed 'trash-to-treasure' method, it is promising to convert harmful sewage sludge into efficient non-platinum cathode catalysts in microbial fuel cells.
寻找高效、廉价的催化剂来替代空气阴极微生物燃料电池中的贵金属基催化剂，对于实际应用和在废水处理和能源生产中的商业化至关重要。在这里，通过简单的热解过程，污水污泥可以转化为具有分级多孔结构的碳材料，展示出氧还原反应（ORR）的催化性能。随后，在碳化污水污泥基质上共掺杂 Mn 和 N 物种，可以进一步提高 ORR 的催化性能，甚至在空气阴极微生物燃料电池（MFC）中表现出可与商业昂贵的 Pt/C 催化剂相媲美的性能。具有 Mn-N/SC 空气阴极的 MFC 的最高最大功率密度高达 1120 mW m，与配备商业化 Pt/C 催化剂的空气阴极 MFC 的功率密度（1240 mW m）相当。考虑到所提出的“变废为宝”方法的简单操作、显著的成本节约和易于规模化，有望将有害的污水污泥转化为微生物燃料电池中高效的非铂阴极催化剂。
