Premium
Carbon‐Supported Cu‐Doped Mn–Co Spinel‐Type Oxides Used as Cathodic Catalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Dual‐Chambered Microbial Fuel Cells
Author(s) -
Hu Dengping,
Wang Haijun,
Wang Juan,
Zhong Qin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
energy technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 2194-4296
pISSN - 2194-4288
DOI - 10.1002/ente.201402110
Subject(s) - catalysis , spinel , cyclic voltammetry , carbon black , microbial fuel cell , oxygen , inorganic chemistry , materials science , carbon fibers , cobalt , electrochemistry , chemistry , metallurgy , electrode , organic chemistry , natural rubber , composite material , composite number , anode
In this study, carbon‐black‐supported Cu‐doped Mn–Co spinel‐type oxides (Mn x Cu 1− x Co 2 O 4 /C, x =0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 1) were synthesized by using a hydrothermal method. Firstly, the morphology characterization shows that the as‐prepared Mn x Cu 1− x Co 2 O 4 nanoparticles with the crystalline spinel structure are uniformly dispersed on the carbon black and the Mn x Cu 1− x Co 2 O 4 /C samples possess high specific surface area. The neutral oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance of Mn x Cu 1− x Co 2 O 4 /C evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) shows that all catalysts can catalyze the ORR. Mn 0.6 Cu 0.4 Co 2 O 4 /C exhibited the highest catalytic activity, which might be due to its highest surface area. Finally, the Mn x Cu 1− x Co 2 O 4 /C samples were used for microbial fuel cells (MFCs) as cathodic catalysts. The polarization curves demonstrate that Mn 0.6 Cu 0.4 Co 2 O 4 /C owns the best power output, close to 20 wt % Pt/C. This study suggests that using Mn 0.6 Cu 0.4 Co 2 O 4 /C instead of Pt/C could potentially improve the feasibility of scaling up MFCs for real applications by lowering the production cost.