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On the Preparation and Testing of Fuel Cell Catalysts Using the Thin Film Rotating Disk Electrode Method
Published on: March 16, 2018
A pyridine-Fe gel with an ultralow-loading Pt derivative as ORR catalyst in microbial fuel cells with long-term
Huiqiang Wang1, Liling Wei2, Chaojie Yang3
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancun North First Street 2, Beijing 100190, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Abstract:
A low-cost and high-efficiency oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst was fabricated using a pyridine-Fe gel with ultralow-loading of Pt nanoparticles and subsequently applied to air-cathode microbial fuel cells (MFCs). This novel catalyst (N3/Fe/C-Pt) exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity with a positive onset potential of 0.19 V (vs Ag/AgCl) and half-wave potential of 0.03 V (vs Ag/AgCl), which is comparable to commercial PtC catalysts. More importantly, N3/Fe/C-Pt shows remarkable oxygen reduction activity in MFCs with a distinct output voltage (568 mV) and power density (504 mW m-2) for 400 h when it is fed with a culture medium containing 5 g L-1 sucrose in the phosphate buffer solution. This strategy, incorporating Pt nanoparticles uniformly into a conductive gel demonstrates significance for broadening the development and research of gel-based catalysts for applications in batteries.
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The United States consumes a large amount of energy – the current rate is around 97.5 quadrillion BTUs annually. The vast majority (90%) of this energy comes from non-renewable fuel sources. This energy is used for electricity (39%), transportation (28%), industry (22%), and residential/commercial use (11%). As the world has a limited supply of these non-renewable sources, the United States (among others) is...

