Iron-streptomycin derived catalyst for efficient oxygen reduction reaction in ceramic microbial fuel cells operating with urine

Maria Jose Salar Garcia; Carlo Santoro; Mounika Kodali; Alexey Serov; Kateryna Artyushkova; Plamen Atanassov; Ioannis Ieropoulos

doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2019.03.052

Iron-streptomycin derived catalyst for efficient oxygen reduction reaction in ceramic microbial fuel cells operating with urine

Maria Jose Salar Garcia, Carlo Santoro, Mounika Kodali, Alexey Serov, Kateryna Artyushkova, Plamen Atanassov, Ioannis Ieropoulos

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

In recent years, the microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has drawn the attention of the scientific community due to its ability to produce clean energy and treat different types of waste at the same time. Often, expensive catalysts are required to facilitate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and this hinders their large-scale commercialisation. In this work, a novel iron-based catalyst (Fe-STR) synthesised from iron salt and streptomycin as a nitrogen-rich organic precursor was chemically, morphologically and electrochemically studied. The kinetics of Fe-STR with and without being doped with carbon nanotubes (CNT) was initially screened through rotating disk electrode (RDE) analysis. Then, the catalysts were integrated into air-breathing cathodes and placed into ceramic-type MFCs continuously fed with human urine. The half-wave potential showed the following trend Fe-STR > Fe-STR-CNT ≫ AC, indicating better kinetics towards ORR in the case of Fe-STR. In terms of MFC performance, the results showed that cathodes containing Fe-based catalyst outperformed AC-based cathodes after 3 months of operation. The long-term test reported that Fe-STR-based cathodes allow MFCs to reach a stable power output of 104.5 ± 0.0 μW cm⁻², 74% higher than AC-based cathodes (60.4 ± 3.9 μW cm⁻²). To the best of the Authors' knowledge, this power performance is the highest recorded from ceramic-type MFCs fed with human urine.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	50-59
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Power Sources
Volume	425
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2019.03.052
State	Published - Jun 15 2019
Externally published	Yes

Funding

Two novel catalysts were synthesised using a sacrificial support method (SSM) and were tested in RDE and MFC once integrated into the air-breathing cathode. The catalysts, Fe-STR and Fe-STR-CNT, were both synthesised using iron nitrate and streptomycin as precursors. CNTs were added during the synthesis process to make Fe-STR-CNT material. RDE data showed that Fe-based catalysts outperformed AC. Among the Fe-based materials tested, Fe-STR had slightly higher E1/2 than the catalyst with the addition of CNTs. It was shown previously that the surface chemistry of the catalyst is related to its catalytic activity with specific N moieties being responsible for enhancing ORR [85]. The amount of total nitrogen, as well as the relative amount of pyridinic nitrogen, is higher for Fe-STR-based cathode than for the other synthesised catalysts.M.J. Salar-Garcia is supported by Fundacion Seneca (Ref. 20372/PD/17). Part of this work has been funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation under the project grant numbers OPP1139954 and OPP1149065. M.J. Salar-Garcia is supported by Fundacion Seneca (Ref. 20372/PD/17 ). Part of this work has been funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation under the project grant numbers OPP1139954 and OPP1149065 .

Keywords

Bioenergy
Iron-based catalyst
Microbial fuel cells
Oxygen reduction reaction

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10.1016/j.jpowsour.2019.03.052

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title = "Iron-streptomycin derived catalyst for efficient oxygen reduction reaction in ceramic microbial fuel cells operating with urine",

abstract = "In recent years, the microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has drawn the attention of the scientific community due to its ability to produce clean energy and treat different types of waste at the same time. Often, expensive catalysts are required to facilitate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and this hinders their large-scale commercialisation. In this work, a novel iron-based catalyst (Fe-STR) synthesised from iron salt and streptomycin as a nitrogen-rich organic precursor was chemically, morphologically and electrochemically studied. The kinetics of Fe-STR with and without being doped with carbon nanotubes (CNT) was initially screened through rotating disk electrode (RDE) analysis. Then, the catalysts were integrated into air-breathing cathodes and placed into ceramic-type MFCs continuously fed with human urine. The half-wave potential showed the following trend Fe-STR > Fe-STR-CNT ≫ AC, indicating better kinetics towards ORR in the case of Fe-STR. In terms of MFC performance, the results showed that cathodes containing Fe-based catalyst outperformed AC-based cathodes after 3 months of operation. The long-term test reported that Fe-STR-based cathodes allow MFCs to reach a stable power output of 104.5 ± 0.0 μW cm−2, 74\% higher than AC-based cathodes (60.4 ± 3.9 μW cm−2). To the best of the Authors' knowledge, this power performance is the highest recorded from ceramic-type MFCs fed with human urine.",

keywords = "Bioenergy, Iron-based catalyst, Microbial fuel cells, Oxygen reduction reaction",

author = "\{Salar Garcia\}, \{Maria Jose\} and Carlo Santoro and Mounika Kodali and Alexey Serov and Kateryna Artyushkova and Plamen Atanassov and Ioannis Ieropoulos",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 The Authors",

year = "2019",

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doi = "10.1016/j.jpowsour.2019.03.052",

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T1 - Iron-streptomycin derived catalyst for efficient oxygen reduction reaction in ceramic microbial fuel cells operating with urine

AU - Salar Garcia, Maria Jose

AU - Santoro, Carlo

AU - Kodali, Mounika

AU - Serov, Alexey

AU - Artyushkova, Kateryna

AU - Atanassov, Plamen

AU - Ieropoulos, Ioannis

PY - 2019/6/15

Y1 - 2019/6/15

N2 - In recent years, the microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has drawn the attention of the scientific community due to its ability to produce clean energy and treat different types of waste at the same time. Often, expensive catalysts are required to facilitate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and this hinders their large-scale commercialisation. In this work, a novel iron-based catalyst (Fe-STR) synthesised from iron salt and streptomycin as a nitrogen-rich organic precursor was chemically, morphologically and electrochemically studied. The kinetics of Fe-STR with and without being doped with carbon nanotubes (CNT) was initially screened through rotating disk electrode (RDE) analysis. Then, the catalysts were integrated into air-breathing cathodes and placed into ceramic-type MFCs continuously fed with human urine. The half-wave potential showed the following trend Fe-STR > Fe-STR-CNT ≫ AC, indicating better kinetics towards ORR in the case of Fe-STR. In terms of MFC performance, the results showed that cathodes containing Fe-based catalyst outperformed AC-based cathodes after 3 months of operation. The long-term test reported that Fe-STR-based cathodes allow MFCs to reach a stable power output of 104.5 ± 0.0 μW cm−2, 74% higher than AC-based cathodes (60.4 ± 3.9 μW cm−2). To the best of the Authors' knowledge, this power performance is the highest recorded from ceramic-type MFCs fed with human urine.

AB - In recent years, the microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has drawn the attention of the scientific community due to its ability to produce clean energy and treat different types of waste at the same time. Often, expensive catalysts are required to facilitate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and this hinders their large-scale commercialisation. In this work, a novel iron-based catalyst (Fe-STR) synthesised from iron salt and streptomycin as a nitrogen-rich organic precursor was chemically, morphologically and electrochemically studied. The kinetics of Fe-STR with and without being doped with carbon nanotubes (CNT) was initially screened through rotating disk electrode (RDE) analysis. Then, the catalysts were integrated into air-breathing cathodes and placed into ceramic-type MFCs continuously fed with human urine. The half-wave potential showed the following trend Fe-STR > Fe-STR-CNT ≫ AC, indicating better kinetics towards ORR in the case of Fe-STR. In terms of MFC performance, the results showed that cathodes containing Fe-based catalyst outperformed AC-based cathodes after 3 months of operation. The long-term test reported that Fe-STR-based cathodes allow MFCs to reach a stable power output of 104.5 ± 0.0 μW cm−2, 74% higher than AC-based cathodes (60.4 ± 3.9 μW cm−2). To the best of the Authors' knowledge, this power performance is the highest recorded from ceramic-type MFCs fed with human urine.

KW - Bioenergy

KW - Iron-based catalyst

KW - Microbial fuel cells

KW - Oxygen reduction reaction

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SP - 50

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JO - Journal of Power Sources

JF - Journal of Power Sources

ER -

Iron-streptomycin derived catalyst for efficient oxygen reduction reaction in ceramic microbial fuel cells operating with urine

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