Claudia W. Narváez Villarrubia

Double‐Chamber Microbial Fuel Cell with a Non‐Platinum‐Group Metal Fe–N–C Cathode Catalyst

Non-Pt-group metal (non-PGM) materials based on transition metal-nitrogen-carbon (M-N-C) and derived from iron salt and aminoantipyrine (Fe-AAPyr) of mebendazole (Fe-MBZ) were studied for the first time as cathode catalysts in double-chamber microbial fuel cells (DCMFCs). The pH value of the cathode chamber was varied from 6 to 11 to elucidate the activity of those catalysts in acidic to basic conditions. The Fe-AAPyr- and Fe-MBZ-based cathodes were compared to a Pt-based cathode used as a baseline. Pt cathodes performed better at pH 6-7.5 and had similar performances at pH 9 and a substantially lower performance at pH 11 at which Fe-AAPyr and Fe-MBZ demonstrated their best electrocatalytic activity. The power density achieved with Pt constantly decreased from 94-99 μW cm(-2) at pH 6 to 55-57 μW cm(-2) at pH 11. In contrast, the power densities of DCMFs using Fe-AAPyr and Fe-MBZ were 61-68 μW cm(-2) at pH 6, decreased to 51-58 μW cm(-2) at pH 7.5, increased to 65-75 μW cm(-2) at pH 9, and the highest power density was achieved at pH 11 (68-80 μW cm(-2) ). Non-PGM cathode catalysts can be manufactured at the fraction of the cost of the Pt-based ones. The higher performance and lower cost indicates that non-PGM catalysts may be a viable materials choice in large-scale microbial fuel cells.

High catalytic activity and pollutants resistivity using Fe-AAPyr cathode catalyst for microbial fuel cell application.

For the first time, a new generation of innovative non-platinum group metal catalysts based on iron and aminoantipyrine as precursor (Fe-AAPyr) has been utilized in a membraneless single-chamber microbial fuel cell (SCMFC) running on wastewater. Fe-AAPyr was used as an oxygen reduction catalyst in a passive gas-diffusion cathode and implemented in SCMFC design. This catalyst demonstrated better performance than platinum (Pt) during screening in “clean” conditions (PBS), and no degradation in performance during the operation in wastewater. The maximum power density generated by the SCMFC with Fe-AAPyr was 167 ± 6 μW cm−2 and remained stable over 16 days, while SCMFC with Pt decreased to 113 ± 4 μW cm−2 by day 13, achieving similar values of an activated carbon based cathode. The presence of S2− and showed insignificant decrease of ORR activity for the Fe-AAPyr. The reported results clearly demonstrate that Fe-AAPyr can be utilized in MFCs under the harsh conditions of wastewater.