Effect of Two Anodic Materials and RuxMoySez as a Cathode Catalyst on the Performance of Two Singlw Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells

Abstract

The objectives of this work were to evaluate (i) the application of a bimetallic chalcogenide, RuxMoySez, as an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst and (ii) the effect of the type of two anodic materials on the performance of two microbial fuel cells (MFCs). A single chamber MFC-T was built with a plexiglass cylinder, the two extreme circular faces were fitted with PEM-cathode assemblage, i.e., left and right faces. The anode consisted of 65 small triangular pieces of graphite filling the anodic chamber. A second MFC-C had a ‘sandwich’ arrangement anode-PEM-cathode. The cathodes were made of ?exible carbon-cloth containing catalysts loading of 1mg/cm² RuxMoySez or 0.5mg/cm² Pt. Power derived by cell T with cathode chalcogenide catalyst was 43% inferior to that of a similar cell with Pt although the cost of the first catalyst is significantly lower than that of Pt, i.e., 73% lower. Finally, application of graphite anode made of small triangular pieces significantly improved the performance of a MFC-T that used RuxMoySez as a cathodic catalyst for ORR.

Key findings

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Identifiers

DOI

10.14447/jnmes.v16i3.6

Journal

Journal of New Materials for Electrochemical Systems

Year

2013