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A Spherical Superstructure of Co,N-doping Mesoporous Carbon for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Air-Breath Cathode Microbial Fuel Cell

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Abstract

Mesoporous carbon materials with nano/microsize have attracted lots of researchers' attention for broad application. The purpose of this study is to develop Co/N co-doped spherical carbon catalyst for ORR. Herein, a twice-assembly strategy is put forward for the synthesis spherical superstructure of Co-based metal organic frameworks (Co-MOF-74) comprising micro- or mesopores from the decomposition and reconstitution of Co-MOF-74 with the addition of structure-directing agent. The Co, N-doped mesoporous spherical superstructure carbon materials (SS-Co/N-MC-T) are prepared by the self-template thermal transformation. The results showed that X-ray absorption near edge structure spectra prove that the Co K-edge of all SS-Co/N-MC-T catalysts show a primary peak corresponding to Co-N4 sites scattering path at ~ 1.4 Å. Results show that SS-Co/N-MC-800 processes preeminent Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) performance with an onset potential of 0.177 V vs Ag/AgCl and whose electrocatalytic activity is comparable to that of the 20% Pt/C catalyst (0.205 V vs Ag/AgCl). Moreover, to investigate the practical ORR electrocatalytic performance of the SS-Co/N-MC-T catalysts, practical air-breath cathode tests are conducted with microbial fuel cells (MFCs) containing SS-Co/N-MC-T and Pt/C. The MFCs of SS-Co/N-MC-800 delivers an optimal power density of 0.95 ± 0.4 mW/m2, which is close to that of Pt/C-MFCs systems (1.00 ± 0.3 W/m2).

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. JC2018002), National Natural Science Foundation of China (22008134), National Natural Science Foundation of China (21905042) and Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (NO. JJ2019LH0816).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Provincial Key Laboratory of Oil & Gas Chemical Technology, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, 163318, Heilongjiang, People’s Republic of China

    Wenyi Wang, Xueqin Wang, Yuanyuan Wang & Hua Song

  2. Binhai Residential Environment Academic Innovation Center, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao, 266000, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Bolong Jiang

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  1. Wenyi Wang
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  2. Xueqin Wang
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  3. Yuanyuan Wang
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Correspondence to Hua Song.

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Wang, W., Wang, X., Wang, Y. et al. A Spherical Superstructure of Co,N-doping Mesoporous Carbon for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Air-Breath Cathode Microbial Fuel Cell. Catal Lett 153, 659–672 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-022-04006-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-022-04006-2

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