Biomass-derived N-doped porous activated carbon as a high-performance and cost-effective pH-universal oxygen reduction catalyst in fuel cell

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy Vol. 45; no. 53; pp. 29308 - 29321
• Main Authors: Liu, Jianting, Wei, Liling, Wang, Huiqiang, Lan, Gongjia, Yang, Haijun, Shen, Jianquan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 30.10.2020
• Subjects: Carbonization temperature; Microbial fuel cell; N-doped porous activated carbon; Oxygen reduction reaction; Tofu gel; Microbial fuel cell; N-doped porous activated carbon; Tofu gel; Oxygen reduction reaction; Carbonization temperature
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.07.216

Nitrogen (N) doped porous activated carbons (TGC-T) derived from tofu gel are prepared through a facile, economic and eco-friendly method. The as-prepared TGC-900 possesses high specific surface area (651.78 m2 g−1) and homogeneous doping N (Content of N: 5.52 at.%). Reasonably, TGC-900 exhibits excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity, stability and methanol resistance in neutral, alkaline and acidic medium. Moreover, TGC-900 also shows outstanding ORR performance in the application of microbial fuel cell (MFC) with the highest output voltage (544 ± 6 mV) and maximum power density (977 ± 32 mW m−2). Inspiringly, four single-chamber air cathode MFCs (AC-MFCs) in series can drive a light-emitting diode (LED) to work is firstly reported which further provides a more intuitively method to evaluate the performance of generating electricity for MFCs. Thus, the high performance and cost-effective ORR catalyst TGC-900 is expected to apply in the field of fuel cells. Tofu gel-derived nitrogen-doped porous activated carbon TGC-900 possesses excellent ORR electrocatalytic activity in neutral, alkaline and acidic medium. [Display omitted] •The carbonization temperature pays a significant role in TGC-T.•TGC-900 has excellent ORR activities in neutral, alkaline and acidic medium.•TGC-900 exhibits excellent ORR performance in MFCs.