Effective and Low-Cost Platinum Electrodes for Microbial Fuel Cells Deposited by Electron Beam Evaporation

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• 作者：Ho Il Park ; Usman Mushtaq ; David Perello ; Innam Lee ; Sung Kwon Cho ; Alexander Star ; Minhee Yun
• 刊名：Energy & Fuels
• 出版年：2007
• 出版时间：September 2007
• 年：2007
• 卷：21
• 期：5
• 页码：2984 - 2990
• 全文大小：897K
• 年卷期：v.21,no.5(September 2007)
• ISSN：1520-5029

文摘

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a device that converts chemical energy to electrical energy through thecatalytic reaction of microorganisms. In this paper, electricity generation was investigated in microbial fuelcells using e-beam deposited Pt electrodes to improve efficiency and minimize Pt loading. We deposited Pt oncarbon paper electrodes using an e-beam evaporator and imaged microscopic structures of the Pt depositedelectrodes using scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Although the e-beam electrodehad the least thick Pt layer (1000 Å) among many tested electrode types (Pt-black = 1500 Å and commercialelectrode = 2500 Å), it showed excellent coverage and Pt uniformity, resulting in minimal loading of Pt. InMFC testing, the e-beam Pt electrode installed only on the anode (carbon paper electrode on the cathode)produced the highest peak value of 0.42 A/m² in the current density, which was about 2 times higher thanwhen the Pt-black anode electrode or E-Tek commercial Pt anode electrode was used. After 45 h of microbialfuel cell running with the Pt electrode on the anode, the carbon electrode on the cathode was also replacedwith an e-beam electrode. This replacement generated an immediate rise in current density, reaching a secondpeak of 0.50 A/m². Considering the mass-specific current density, which represents the current density perunit Pt thickness, the e-beam electrode was the most effective with minimal Pt loading. The mass-specificcurrent density for the e-beam electrodes was 2.5 times higher than that for the E-Tek commercial electrodes.These promising results suggest the high potential of e-beam-deposited Pt electrodes in improving microbialfuel cell efficiency with minimal Pt loading.