Soybean powder enables the synthesis of Fe–N–C catalysts with high ORR activities in microbial fuel cell applications |
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Affiliation: | School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225002, China |
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Abstract: | The development of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) into a new type of carbon-neutral wastewater treatment technology requires efficient and low-cost oxygen reduction reaction catalysts in air cathodes. The use of raw soybean powder was investigated for synthesizing Fe–N–C ORR catalysts in a sacrificial SiO2 support method. ZnCl2 etching in the synthesis was found to facilitate the formation of hierarchical porous structures of Fe–N–C catalysts. Fe–N–C(1-1) catalyst synthesized with an optimal soybean/ZnCl2 mass ratio of 1:1 exhibited the highest ORR activity in air cathodes. The use of the obtained Fe–N–C(1-1) catalyst enables a maximum power production of ~0.480 mW cm?2 in MFCs, higher than commercial Pt/C (0.438 mW cm?2) with the same catalyst loading of 2 mg cm?2. Long-term MFC operations demonstrated that the Fe–N–C synthesized from raw soybean have high stability and toxic tolerance, indicating that abundant low cost soybean biomass is a potential material for ORR catalyst development in MFC applications. |
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Keywords: | Microbial fuel cells Soybean powder Fe–N–C catalysts Air-cathode |
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