Fe-N Modified Carbon Black as a High-performance and Cost-effective Cathode Catalyst in Microbial Fuel Cells

doi:10.15541/jim20170136

Abstract

Abstract:

Carbon black is a high conductive and cheap catalyst for oxygen reduction, which can be used as cathode catalyst of microbial fuel cells. However, pure carbon black has low catalytic activity which does not meet the requirement in practical field. In order to improve the catalytic performance of carbon black, ferric chloride (FeCl₃) and melamine, as sources of Fe and N respectively, were mixed with carbon black at a certain ratio and co-carbonized. Results show that the output power density reaches the highest value (1395 mW/m²) with the mass ratio of 2.6∶1 (FeCl₃-melamine/carbon black), which is 59% higher than that of the widely used Pt/C catalyst (876 mW/m²). SEM images show that some elliptic or columnar crystals are formed on the surface of carbon black, which is testified to be Fe₃C crystal by XRD and XPS. Meanwhile, pyridinic and quaternary nitrogen generated by carbonization provides more active sites on the catalyst surface, thus improving the catalytic performance of composite catalyst. With the increasing ratio of Fe-N, the conductivity and the surface area of composite catalyst decrease gradually, which limits the catalytic performance. All those data demonstrated that the catalyst generated by FeCl₃, melamine and carbon black is an exceptional cost-effective cathode catalyst which can be used in scale-up MFCs.

Key words: microbial fuel cells, oxygen reduction, carbon black, ferric chloride, melamine

CLC Number:

TQ174

XIE Yang-En, WANG Ding-Ling, MA Zhao-Kun, SONG Huai-He, XU Pei. Fe-N Modified Carbon Black as a High-performance and Cost-effective Cathode Catalyst in Microbial Fuel Cells[J]. Journal of Inorganic Materials, 2018, 33(3): 295-300.

Figures/Tables 8

Fig. 1 Power density (a) and polarization curves (b) of cathodes catalysts with different Fe-N/C ratios

Fig. 2 SEM images of cathode catalysts with different Fe-N/C ratios

Fig. 3 XRD patterns of cathode catalysts with different Fe- N/C ratios

Fig. 4 XPS full spectra and high resolution of N1s and Fe2p for cathode catalysts with different Fe-N/C ratios

Table 1 Element percentages of cathode catalysts with different Fe-N/C ratios/%

Element	0.2∶1	1.4∶1	2.6∶1	3.0∶1	4.0∶1
C/%	94.19	82.84	87.26	81.57	90.85
N/%	0.70	1.56	2.42	2.83	2.59
O/%	5.11	15.35	9.89	15.01	5.82
Fe2p/%	-	0.24	0.40	0.59	0.48

Table 2 Resistivity of cathode catalysts with different Fe-N/C ratios

Samples	Resistivity/(?•cm)
0.2∶1	1.46
1.4∶1	1.02
2.6∶1	1.44
3.0∶1	2.31
4.0∶1	4.45

Table 3 Surface areas of cathode catalysts with different Fe-N/C ratios

Samples	Carbon black	0.2∶1	1.4∶1	2.6∶1
BET/(m²•g^-1)	254	236	232	210

Fig. 5 Oxygen reduction polarizations of cathode catalysts with different Fe-N/C ratios

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