TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhancing oxygen reduction reaction of supercapacitor microbial fuel cells with electrospun carbon nanofibers composite cathode
AU - Cai, Teng
AU - Huang, Yuxuan
AU - Huang, Manhong
AU - Xi, Yu
AU - Pang, Dianyu
AU - Zhang, Wen
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21477018 ), the fund from Key Laboratory of Jiangxi Province for Persistant Pollutants Control and Resources Recycle (No. ES201980203 ) and National Key Research Development Program of China ( 2016YFC0400502 ).
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) as a novel, environmental-friendly wastewater treatment technology have received increasing attention. One of the major challenges for its large-scale application lies in the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics and high catalyst costs. To address this issue, carbon nanofibers (CNFs) composite electrodes that combine both ORR catalytic activity and electrochemical capacitance behavior were fabricated in this study. Results showed that the interconnectivity of fiber aggregates and thorns-like structure of the as-prepared electrodes exhibited a high ORR catalytic activity with low internal resistance (0.18 Ω·cm−2) and high exchange current density (13.68 A·m−2). When MFCs were equipped with the carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/CNFs electrode, a maximum power density of 306 ± 14 mW·m−2 was obtained, which was 140% higher than that with Pt/C. Moreover, the CNTs/CNFs electrode showed stable catalytic activity without decline in voltage for 60 d. Both faradaic and non-faradaic processes were involved during GLV discharge. The high apparent capacitance (0.68 ± 0.11 F·cm−2) and prolonged discharge time were achieved by the CNTs/CNFs electrode, which could be attributed to the simultaneous effects of electrochemical double layer capacitance and pseudo-capacitance behavior. Together we demonstrated that the great promise of the CNTs/CNFs electrode for MFCs applications.
AB - Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) as a novel, environmental-friendly wastewater treatment technology have received increasing attention. One of the major challenges for its large-scale application lies in the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics and high catalyst costs. To address this issue, carbon nanofibers (CNFs) composite electrodes that combine both ORR catalytic activity and electrochemical capacitance behavior were fabricated in this study. Results showed that the interconnectivity of fiber aggregates and thorns-like structure of the as-prepared electrodes exhibited a high ORR catalytic activity with low internal resistance (0.18 Ω·cm−2) and high exchange current density (13.68 A·m−2). When MFCs were equipped with the carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/CNFs electrode, a maximum power density of 306 ± 14 mW·m−2 was obtained, which was 140% higher than that with Pt/C. Moreover, the CNTs/CNFs electrode showed stable catalytic activity without decline in voltage for 60 d. Both faradaic and non-faradaic processes were involved during GLV discharge. The high apparent capacitance (0.68 ± 0.11 F·cm−2) and prolonged discharge time were achieved by the CNTs/CNFs electrode, which could be attributed to the simultaneous effects of electrochemical double layer capacitance and pseudo-capacitance behavior. Together we demonstrated that the great promise of the CNTs/CNFs electrode for MFCs applications.
KW - Composite cathode
KW - Electrospinning
KW - Oxygen reduction reaction
KW - Supercapacitor microbial fuel cells
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cej.2019.04.025
DO - 10.1016/j.cej.2019.04.025
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85064257234
SN - 1385-8947
VL - 371
SP - 544
EP - 553
JO - Chemical Engineering Journal
JF - Chemical Engineering Journal
ER -