Nitrogen and Phosphorus Doped Activated Carbon Catalyst Prepared from Shrimp Shell and its Application in MFC Air Cathode

摘要

Cathode design and cost is one of the major challenges for microbial fuel cell (MFC) large scale operation due to the adoption of precious Pt/C catalyst. In this work, shrimp shells were chosen to prepare a cheap and sustainable ORR catalyst and applied it in MFC air cathode. Single step pyrolysis and activation at 700°C with H3PO4 was used to introduce phosphorus atom in the carbon. Three types of catalysts, named shrimp shells activated carbon (SS-AC), commercial activated carbon (C-AC) and Pt/C were compared for their performance in MFC system.