Facile Synthesis of Fe/N/S‐Doped Carbon Tubes as High‐Performance Cathode and Anode for Microbial Fuel Cells
Wei Yang, Jun Li, Linghan Lan, Zhuo Li +3
AI summary
70% confidenceResearchers developed Fe/N/S-doped carbon tubes as high-performance cathode and anode for microbial fuel cells, exhibiting electrocatalytic activity and facilitating bacterial growth and electron transfer.
Generated by MESSAI extraction pipeline · review against source PDF
Representative MFC — matched on the paper’s system type only, not its reactor or geometry.
Open 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
Abstract As a renewable energy technology, microbial fuel cell (MFC) has been attracting increasing attention in recent decades. However, practical applications of MFCs has been hampered by the unsatisfactory electrode performance, in particular, at the cathode. Herein, Fe/N/S‐doped carbon hollow tubes were prepared by a facile two‐stage procedure involving hydrothermal treatment and pyrolysis at controlled temperatures. Electrochemical studies showed that the obtained samples exhibited an apparent electrocatalytic activity towards oxygen reduction reaction in both alkaline and acidic media, a performance comparable to that of commercial Pt/C, and the sample prepared at 800 °C stood out as the best among the series with a half‐wave potential of +0.81 V vs. RHE and an electron transfer number of 3.98 at +0.6 V vs. RHE. The Fe/N/S‐doped carbon tubes also exhibited a remarkable performance as an MFC anode by facilitating bacterial growth and electron transfer between the biofilm and electrode. In fact, an MFC based on the carbon tubes as both cathode and anode showed a markedly higher performance (maximum power density 479 W m −3 ) than the control MFC based on a graphene aerogel anode and Pt/C cathode (359 W m −3 ). These results suggest that Fe/N/S‐doped carbon composites can be used for the fabrication of high‐efficiency MFC electrodes.
Key findings
- Fe/N/S-doped carbon tubes showed apparent electrocatalytic activity towards oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline and acidic media.
- The samples performed comparably to commercial Pt/C, with the best sample prepared at 800 °C having a half-wave potential of +0.81 V vs. RHE and an electron transfer number of 3.98 at +0.6 V vs. RHE.
- The Fe/N/S-doped carbon tubes also exhibited remarkable performance as an MFC anode, facilitating bacterial growth and electron transfer between the biofilm and electrode.
Keywords
Identifiers
- Journal
- ChemCatChem
- Year
- 2019