Cobalt‐based Catalysts Modified Cathode for Enhancing Bioelectricity Generation and Wastewater Treatment in Air‐breathing Cathode Microbial Fuel Cells

Abstract

To seek an efficient way to enhance the power output and wastewater treatment of microbial fuel cell (MFC), several cobalt‐based composites are successfully synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method under different pyrolysis temperature, and these composites are used as electrocatalyst in air‐breathing cathode of MFC. Different species of nitrogen atom are successfully grafted on the cobalt‐based composites and confirmed by physical and electrochemical analyses. In MFC tests, the maximum power density increases from 577.8 mW m−2 to 931.1 mW m−2 with pyrolysis temperature (except for 1000 °C). These electrochemical tests and high COD removal show that Co/N/C‐900 can rapidly transfer electron via a 2×2 e− transfer pathway, mainly due to the exposure of large electrochemical active area and introduction of the defects of pyridinic−N and abundant oxygen vacancies. Although the power density of MFC with Co/N/C‐900 is 81.1 % of that of commercial Pt/C, the MFC with Co/N/C‐900 is more stable than that of Pt/C, and the power density for Co/N/C‐900 has only a 2.8 % decrease during 25‐cycles operation. The great electrocatalytic activity of the novel Co/N/C‐900 composite exhibits a superior outlook for scale‐up application of MFC in the future.

Activated carbon supported Fe–Cu–NC as an efficient cathode catalyst for a microbial fuel cell

“…The pyridinic N was able to coordinate with metal atoms to form the active M–N x (M = metal), 43 while the graphitic N could improve the ORR activity of the carbon matrix. 44 In addition, the content of pyridinic N and graphitic N, as active ingredients, accounted for 89.9% of the total N content in Fe–Cu–NC. For the Fe 2p spectra (Fig.…”

Zn‐doped NiCo2O4 as Modified Electrode Nanomaterials for Enhanced Electrochemical Detection Performance of Cu(II)

“…In Figure S3b, the stripping peak current is maximum at pH = 5.0. When the pH continues to increase, the deposition of Cu(II) on the electrode surface is reduced due to the hydrolysis of Cu(II), resulting in the decrease of stripping peak current [2]. Figure S3c shows the influence of deposition potential (from À 1.4 V to 1.0 V).…”

“…Figure 5c shows the DPASV response curves of Zn 0.4 Ni 0.6 Co 2 O 4 /GCE toward Cu(II) under different concentration ranges and the calibration curve are shown in Figure 5d. The well-defined stripping peak current linearly increases with the increasing of Cu(II) concentration and the fitting linear equation is I p = 15.2 C + 4.55 (R 2 = 0.99), which the sensitivity is 15.2 μA/μM and the limit of detection (S/N = 3) is 1.96 nM (LOD = 3σ/S), where σ is the standard deviation of the background, and S is the slope of the calibration curve [2]. The comparison of electrochemical detection analysis of Cu(II) of modified electrode materials is shown in Table 1.…”

“…Cu(II) has been released from industry, mining and waste gas, and cause considerable concern in recent years [1]. Once absorbed and accumulated of Cu(II) in the human body, it is easy to bring burden to human organs, ead to human metabolic disorder and pose a great threat to human health [2]. Therefore, it is of great significance to detect Cu(II) accurately and quickly.…”