Tailoring Unique Mesopores of Hierarchically Porous Structures for Fast Direct Electrochemistry in Microbial Fuel Cells

Zou, Long; Qiao, Yan; Wu, Zhenyu; Wu, Xiaoshuai; Xie, Jiale; Yu, Shu‐Hong; Guo, Jinhong; Li, Chang Ming

doi:10.1002/aenm.201501535

Cited by 121 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…5). Considering the size of the avins is about 1-1.5 nm at the lowest energy state, 25 the pores with the pore size over 3 nm should be enough for the avins diffusion in and the redox reaction. However, the thickness of the electric double layer will also affect the effective area of a mesoporous electrode that available for electrochemical reaction.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…24 It has been reported that the increase of pore size from micropores to mesopores could promote the avin based electron transfer by allowing the two-electroactive sites simultaneously access the electrode surface. 25 A mesoporous structured anode with appropriate pore size or pore shape could greatly improve the output performance of the MFCs. However, it is still unclear that which kind of mesopores would be favorable for avin based electron transfer.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Tailoring of pore structure in mesoporous carbon for favourable flavin mediated interfacial electron transfer in microbial fuel cells

Tang

Qiao

et al. 2018

RSC Adv.

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Mesoporous carbon (MC) is supposed to be a good candidate for microbial fuel cell (MFC) anodes as it possesses a large specific area for the redox reaction of the electron shuttles and should deliver high power density. However, the power generation performance of MC anodes is often un-satisfying. It seems that a large portion of the pore surface is not available for anodic redox reaction but the reason is not clear. Here, three MCs with different pore sizes and pore shapes were fabricated and used to explore the effect of the pore structure on the bioelectrocatalysis in Shewanella putrefaciens CN32 MFCs. It is interesting that MC with 40-60 nm spheric pores (MC-III) possesses superior bio-electrocatalytic performance to the CMK-3 (MC-I with 3 nm channel like pores) and the one with 14 nm spheric pores (MC-II) although the specific surface area of MC-III is lower than MC-II and MC-I. The reason might be that the MC-III provides a more favorable pore structure than the other two MCs for flavin based redox reaction at the interface between the biofilm and the electrode. As a result, the MC-III anode delivered the highest power density at around 1700 mW m À2, which is 1.6 fold higher than that of the MC-I anode. A possible mechanism for the pore shape/size dependent interfacial electron transfer process has also been proposed. This work reveals that spheric mesopores with large pore width could be more favorable than the narrow channel-like pores for flavin based interfacial electron transfer in biofilm anodes, which will provide some insights for the design of the mesoporous anode in MFCs.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tailoring of pore structure in mesoporous carbon for favourable flavin mediated interfacial electron transfer in microbial fuel cells

Tang

Qiao

et al. 2018

RSC Adv.

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“…If the pyrolyzed and subsequently ground biopolymer is applied as a coating to a graphite electrode (power density 127 mW m −2 in the uncoated control batch), there is a significant increase in the MFC power density (1747 mW m −2 ). The authors concluded that the meso pores (ø = 2–10 nm) formed at the appropriate pyrolysis temperature provide more space for the redox mediator (e.g., flavins), which can thus better penetrate into the pores and become reoxidized there .…”

Section: Immobilization and Redox Mediator‐based Strategies For Enhanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies for the Targeted Improvement of Anodic Electron Transfer in Microbial Fuel Cells

et al. 2019

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The concept of the microbial fuel cell (MFC) has existed for over 100 years, but only within the last decade, the practical implementation has become conceivable due to microbial and technical progress. This review article presents available strategies to increase the limiting extracellular electron transfer (EET) in the anode space of MFCs. Therefore, organism‐based improvements as well as the effects of (bio–)polymers and redox mediators on ETT will be demonstrated.

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“…Consequently, research in energy conversion and environmental fields is of strong and further growing interest . Microbial fuel cells (MFCs), which can directly harvest electrical power from waste and inexhaustible biomass by employing electrochemically active microorganisms, is a promising technology for sustainable energy production . As a sustainable and environmentally friendly technology, MFCs provide an integrated pathway to produce green electricity and also simultaneously achieve wastewater treatment .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these carbons show relatively low bacterial adhesion activity, yielding low quantity of biofilm formation and weak interactions between bacteria and the electrode surface, thus resulting in poor power output efficiency. Therefore, current investigations are aiming to increase the energy density of MFCs by tailoring and optimizing carbon materials to increase the loading amount of bacteria, improve electron‐transfer pathways, and enhance the stability of bacteria at the electrode surface . In the cathodic compartment, current developments indicate that carbon materials can function as (noble) metal‐free catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and that their performances can even compete with Pt‐based cathodes .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon‐Based Microbial‐Fuel‐Cell Electrodes: From Conductive Supports to Active Catalysts

2016

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Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have attracted considerable interest due to their potential in renewable electrical power generation using the broad diversity of biomass and organic substrates. However, the difficulties in achieving high power densities and commercially affordable electrode materials have limited their industrial applications to date. Carbon materials, which can exhibit a wide range of different morphologies and structures, usually possess physiological activity to interact with microorganisms and are therefore fast-emerging electrode materials. As the anode, carbon materials can significantly promote interfacial microbial colonization and accelerate the formation of extracellular biofilms, which eventually promotes the electrical power density by providing a conductive microenvironment for extracellular electron transfer. As the cathode, carbon-based materials can function as catalysts for the oxygen-reduction reaction, showing satisfying activities and efficiencies nowadays even reaching the performance of Pt catalysts. Here, first, recent advancements on the design of carbon materials for anodes in MFCs are summarized, and the influence of structure and surface functionalization of different types of carbon materials on microorganism immobilization and electrochemical performance is elucidated. Then, synthetic strategies and structures of typical carbon-based cathodes in MFCs are briefly presented. Furthermore, future applications of carbon-electrode-based MFC devices in the energy, environmental, and biological fields are discussed, and the emerging challenges in transferring them from laboratory to industrial scale are described.

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Tailoring Unique Mesopores of Hierarchically Porous Structures for Fast Direct Electrochemistry in Microbial Fuel Cells

Cited by 121 publications

References 43 publications

Tailoring of pore structure in mesoporous carbon for favourable flavin mediated interfacial electron transfer in microbial fuel cells

Tailoring of pore structure in mesoporous carbon for favourable flavin mediated interfacial electron transfer in microbial fuel cells

Strategies for the Targeted Improvement of Anodic Electron Transfer in Microbial Fuel Cells

Carbon‐Based Microbial‐Fuel‐Cell Electrodes: From Conductive Supports to Active Catalysts

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