Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY
Volume 36, Issue 16, Pages 9439-9445Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.05.080
Keywords
Hydrogen evolution reaction; Molybdenum disulfide; Platinum; Stainless steel
Categories
Funding
- Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
Ask authors/readers for more resources
There is great interest in hydrogen evolution in bioelectrochemical systems, such as microbial electrolysis cells (MECs), but these systems require non-optimal near-neutral pH conditions and the use of low-cost, non-precious metal catalysts. Here we show that molybdenum disulfide (MoS(2)) composite cathodes have electrochemical performance superior to stainless steel (SS) (currently the most promising low-cost, non-precious metal MEC catalyst) or Pt-based cathodes in phosphate or perchlorate electrolytes, yet they cost similar to 4.5 times less than Pt-based composite cathodes. At current densities typical of many MECs (2-5 A/m(2)), the optimal surface density with MoS(2) particles on carbon cloth was 25 g/ m(2), achieving 31 mV less hydrogen evolution overpotential than similarly constructed Pt cathodes in galvanostatic tests with a phosphate buffer. At higher current densities (8-10 A/m(2)) the MoS(2) catalyst had 82 mV less hydrogen evolution overpotential than the Pt-based catalyst. MoS(2) composite cathodes performed similarly to Pt cathodes in terms of current densities, hydrogen production rates and COD removal over several batch cycles in MEC reactors. These results show that MoS(2) can be used to substantially reduce the cost of cathodes used in MECs for hydrogen gas production. Copyright (C) 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available