Synthesis of Non‐precious N‐doped Mesoporous Fe3O4/CoO@NC Materials towards Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction for Microbial Fuel Cells

• Published in: Electroanalysis (New York, N.Y.) Vol. 34; no. 8; pp. 1245 - 1255
• Main Authors: Jiang, Bolong, Lu, Decheng, Jiang, Nan, Jiang, Hailin, Qi, Lihua, Shi, Shunjie, Cui, Yanyan, Tan, Weiqiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.08.2022
• Subjects: air cathode; Fe3O4/CoO catalyst; Microbial fuel cells; oxygen reduction reaction; zeolitic imidazolate framework
• ISSN: 1040-0397; 1521-4109
• DOI: 10.1002/elan.202100601

N‐doped transition metal oxides are strategic materials towards the efficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Non‐precious N‐doped Fe3O4/CoO@NC−T (T represents carbonization temperature) catalysts are prepared by an efficient two‐step strategy for ORR. Fe3O4/CoO@NC‐750 exhibits the best performance with an efficient four‐electron transfer pathway. The optimal power density of MFCs by using Fe3O4/CoO@NC‐750 as the cathode catalyst (1243.4 mW ⋅ m−2) is superior to that of the MFCs with commercial Pt/C catalyst (1080 mW ⋅ m−2), which shows an outstanding activity towards ORR. No significant decrease in output voltage results over 70 days, which shows an excellent electrochemical stability.