Carboxylic Carbon Nanotube: Catalyst Support Material and Oxygen Reduction Reaction of Microbial Fuel Cells

摘要

The catalyst support materials (CSMs) greatly affect the catalytic efficiency and performances ofmicrobial fuel cells (MFCs). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of prepared CSMs onoxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the air cathode of MFCs. Membrane free single-chamber aircathode MFCs, M80 and M95, are constructed using carboxylic modified carbon nanotube (CNTs)prepared under different conditions as the CSMs. The Experimental results show that comparing withMPT (the control) containing Pt/C as catalyst, which gains a maximum power density of2 2 447.29mW/m , the M80 achieves a maximum power density of 773.9 mW/m , Noticeably, the M952 increases the power density to 911.3 mW/m . Moreover, the internal resistance is decreased by 67% to310 of M95 and 44% to 359 of M80 comparing with MPT(518). Besides, From the polarizationcurves, open circuit voltages are 0.735V and 0.776V for M80 and M95 which is higher than MPT with0.621V. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopeanalysis demonstrate that the higher efficiency of Pt/CNT-2 catalyst may be attributable to the richerO, N and S-containing groups on the surface of CSM CNT-2 under higher temperature treatment.