Silver/iron oxide/graphitic carbon composites as bacteriostatic catalysts for enhancing oxygen reduction in microbial fuel cells

Recent progress and perspectives in microbial fuel cells for bioenergy generation and wastewater treatment

“…As previously mentioned, Ma et al [89] demonstrated that a catalyst based on graphitic carbon (GC) and silver/iron oxide composite (AgNPs/Fe 3 O 4 /GC), which has an antibacterial effect on the cathode surface, can increase the conductivity and the catalytic activity of the system. They obtained a maximum power density of 1712 mW·m −2 , and consequently this material seems to be a low cost alternative to Pt/C, being both more efficient and durable.…”

“…In addition, the use of ceramic membranes or the replacement of platinum catalysts by other less expensive materials, such as manganese oxide, metal macrocycle compounds or enzymes, has led to reductions in the cost of MFCs and a wider application range [75,156]. Also, there have been promising results concerning the use of nanosilver/iron oxide composites based on graphite carbon (AgNPs/Fe 3 O 4 /GC), a low cost source, offering higher power density and durability than platinum/carbon [89]. Much effort has also been directed at designing new configurations in order to make the scaling-up of MFCs viable [26,27,39,[65][66][67]71,80,102,103,147,152,153,172].…”

Oxygen Reduction Reaction on Silver Catalysts in Alkaline Media: a Minireview

“…In microbial fuel cells (MFCs), the Ag‐based cathode catalysts have suggested to be advantageous, as due to the toxicity of Ag + ions to the bacteria, AgNPs have antimicrobial properties and thus inhibit the growth of a biofilm . It has been demonstrated that the biofilms on AgNP‐containing cathodes have lower protein content than those at bare activated carbon cathodes, which allows stable O 2 mass transport during long‐term operation .…”

“…Electrodeposition of Ag to activated carbon cathodes considerably increased the performance of MFCs and maximum power density of 1080 mW m −2 was reached . AgNPs/Fe 3 O 4 /C composites synthesised by carbonisation of pomelo skins outperformed Ag/C and even Pt/C catalysts in a glucose‐fed MFC and demonstrated the P max value of 1712 mW m −2 . A rather similar P max value (1791 mW m −2 ) was obtained with Ag/Fe/N/C composite catalyst prepared by carbonisation of melamine at 630 °C, while the other carbonisation temperatures between 620 and 900 °C yielded less active materials .…”

Iron-rich nanoparticle encapsulated, nitrogen doped porous carbon materials as efficient cathode electrocatalyst for microbial fuel cells

“…[3] It has attracted broad interest to develop sustainable, efficient, and durable electrocatalysts for ORR. To date, a variety of ORR electrocatalysts have been developed, such as metal-free carbon materials [4][5][6] and non-precious metal based catalysts, [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] which are aimed at affordable alternatives in place of Pt-based catalysts. Composites of metal and nitrogen-doped carbon (M-N x /C) are a class of non-precious metal ORR catalysts that are often produced by pyrolysis of metalloporphyrin or -phthalocyanine precursors.…”