Novel Porous Nitrogen Doped Graphene/Carbon Black Composites as Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction Electrocatalyst for Power Generation in Microbial Fuel Cell
Yuan Liu, Zhimei Liu, Hong Liu, Meiling Liao
AI summary
82% confidenceThis work synthesizes nitrogen-doped graphene/carbon black (NG/CB) composites as oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts for microbial fuel cells using a novel template-like method. Carbon black serves as a conductive backbone and spacer to prevent graphene restacking, while cetyltrimethylammonium bromide acts as a molecular bridge. The optimized NG/CB-10 composite (GO:CB mass ratio 10:1) achieves 4-electron ORR pathway in neutral pH, with maximum MFC power density of 936 mW·m⁻², matching platinum/carbon performance at 25% lower cost.
Generated by MESSAI extraction pipeline · review against source PDF
Literature priors
Representative MFC — matched on the paper’s system type only, not its reactor or geometry.
Reported parameters
The author’s reported value (▼) sits on top of the literature distribution from MESS-Parameters. Values outside the band are flagged as outliers.
5 extracted values
View extracted valuesOpen in lab for full controls, parameter editing, and template overlays.
Open in lab →What they did
- System
- MFC
What worked
No outcome metrics extracted yet.
Abstract
To improve the power generation of a microbial fuel cell (MFC), a porous nitrogen-doped graphene/carbon black (NG/CB) composite as efficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalyst was successfully synthesized by pyrolyzing graphene oxide (GO) encapsulated CB with cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide as a bridge. This concept-to-proof synthesis can be considered as a template-like method. Based on this method, one composite named as NG/CB-10 was acquired using the optimized GO-to-CB mass ratio of 10:1. Electrochemical tests demonstrate that NG/CB-10 can catalyze ORR in neutral-pH medium through a four-electron pathway with positively shifted the onset potential, the enhanced current density and reduced charge transfer resistance. CB addition also prolongs the stability of NG/CB-10. The enhancement in electrochemical performance of NG/CB-10 was attributed to the enlarged surface area, abundant mesopores and high content of pyridinic nitrogen. The maximum power density of MFC equipping NG/CB-10 as cathode electrocatalyst reached 936 mW·m⁻², which was 26% higher than that of NG and equal to that of platinum/carbon. The cost of NG/CB-10 was reduced by 25% compared with that of NG. This work provides a novel method to synthesize promising ORR electrocatalyst for MFC in the future.
Keywords
Identifiers
- Journal
- Nanomaterials
- Year
- 2019