Spray pyrolysis‐assisted synthesis of hollow cobalt nitrogen‐doped carbon catalyst for the performance enhancement of membraneless fuel cells

Abstract

Summary Hollow cobalt nitrogen‐doped carbon (H‐CoNC) is suggested for use in the membraneless hydrogen peroxide fuel cell (HPFC) and enzymatic biofuel cell (EBC) as anodic catalyst boosting hydrogen peroxide oxidation reaction (HPOR). For fabricating H‐CoNCs, a facile spray pyrolysis‐assisted process is used, and such produced H‐CoNCs show a porous and hollow‐shell structure, while they include a large amount of isolated Co atoms and coordinate bonds with Co and nitrogen (CoN4). This structure promotes mass transfer to the active site and excellent catalytic activity for HPOR. With these benefits of H‐CoNCs, the current density of the bioanode consisting of H‐CoNC, carbon nanotube, and glucose oxidase (H‐CoNC/CNT/GOx) observed at 0.3 V under 150 mM glucose is 315.5 μA cm−2, which is 2.1 times higher than that of a conventionally synthesized catalyst using Co‐doped carbon nanoparticles (CoNC‐NPs) (CoNC‐NPs/CNT/GOx, 146.2 μA cm−2). With this superior catalytic activity for HPOR, maximum power density (MPD) of membraneless EBC using H‐CoNC/CNT/GOx is 33.8 ± 4.52 μW cm−2, which is 52% higher than that of CoNP‐NPs/CNT/GOx. In addition, a membraneless HPFC using H‐CoNC/CNT demonstrates 4.87 times higher MPD (231.3 ± 11.3 μW cm−2) than that using CoNC‐NPs/CNT, proving that H‐CoNC improves the performance of fuel cells by its excellent catalytic activity.

Two-dimensional polymeric cobalt phthalocyanine synthesized by microwave irradiation and its use for continuous glucose monitoring

“…Most of them use glucose oxidase (GOx) enzyme for glucose oxidation reaction (GOR), and Pt electrode serves as the catalyst to generate anodic current from hydrogen peroxide, a product of GOR [19]. Instead of using Pt, In recent years, metal phthalocyanines (MPCs) such as cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) have also been considered for use in glucose level sensor electrodes [20][21][22][23][24]. MPCs have shown high sensitivity, speci c response to the substrates, chemical stability, and reusability, making them suitable replacements for precious metal-based electrodes [25].…”

Flow-type hydrogen peroxide fuel cells with hemin-modified buckypaper catalysts

“…Among them, hemin has a superior catalytic activity for the HPRR in acidic and physiological conditions, and the development of hemin-modified catalysts was reported for HPFC and H 2 O 2 sensors. 24,26,27,29 To improve the performance of HPFCs, the current and onset potential for the HPRR should increase, and these factors are determined by the amount of immobilized hemin molecules and the structure of the catalyst. 26 There have been some previous studies on that.…”

Paper‐based flexible membraneless fuel cells using vitamins as both anodic catalyst and fuel

“…11,17,18 However, to date, sugar has not been used widely as fuel for DLFCs yet due to its low reactivity with precious metal catalysts or enzyme-based biocatalysts that are expensive and poor in durability. 19,20 In this regard, vitamin C (Vit C) can be a feasible alternative to sugar fuels. Contrary to sugars, Vit C is one of the famous antioxidants, and thus, this is easily oxidized.…”

“…Furthermore, the use of sugar fuel was meaningful for eco‐friendly power generation because excessive sugar wastewaters emitted from the food industry could badly affect the underwater environment by accelerating eutrophication, and when the sugar wastewaters were well treated as a form of sugar fuel, this became environmentally beneficial works 11,17,18 . However, to date, sugar has not been used widely as fuel for DLFCs yet due to its low reactivity with precious metal catalysts or enzyme‐based biocatalysts that are expensive and poor in durability 19,20 …”