A Highly Efficient Catalyst toward Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Neutral Media for Microbial Fuel Cells

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• 作者：Yunhe Su ; Yihua Zhu ; Xiaoling Yang ; Jianhua Shen ; Jindan Lu ; Xiaoyan Zhang ; Jianding Chen ; Chunzhong Li
• 刊名：Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
• 出版年：2013
• 出版时间：May 8, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：52
• 期：18
• 页码：6076-6082
• 全文大小：473K
• 年卷期：v.52,no.18(May 8, 2013)
• ISSN：1520-5045

文摘

A nanocomposite of cobaltosic oxide and nitrogen-doped graphene (Co₃O₄/N-G) was prepared by the facile hydrothermal method. Morphology characterizations show that the Co₃O₄ nanoparticles with crystalline spinel structure are uniformly dispersed on the nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets, and the graphene weight fraction in Co₃O₄/N-G composite is estimated to be 20%. Meanwhile, electrochemical measurements reveal that the as-prepared Co₃O₄/N-G nanocomposite exhibits a high catalytic activity and long-term stability in neutral electrolyte. Moreover, the use of Co₃O₄/N-G as cathode catalyst for oxygen reduction in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to produce electricity was also investigated. The obtained maximum power density was 1340 卤 10 mW m^鈥?, which was as high as almost four times that of the plain cathode (340 卤 10 mW m^鈥?), and only slightly lower than that of a commercial Pt/C catalyst (1470 卤 10 mW m^鈥?). All the results prove that a Co₃O₄/N-G hybrid can be a good alternative to platinum catalysts for practical MFC applications.