Iron- and nitrogen-functionalized graphene as a non-precious metal catalyst for enhanced oxygen reduction in an air-cathode microbial fuel cell

In this work, iron- and nitrogen-functionalized graphene (Fe-N-G) as a non-precious metal catalyst is synthesized via a facile method of thermal treatment of a mixture of Fe salt, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and chemically reduced graphene. The electrocatalytic activity of the prepared catalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) evaluated by using linear sweep voltammetry tests shows that the Fe-N-C catalyst has more positive onset potential and increased reduction current densities as compared to the pristine graphene (P-G) catalyst, indicating an enhanced ORR activity of the Fe-N-C catalyst. More importantly, the Fe-N-G-MFC achieves the highest power density of 1149.8 mW m(-2), which is similar to 2.1 times of that generated with the Pt/C-MFC (561.1 mW m(-2)) and much higher than that of the P-G-MFC (109 mW m(-2)). These results demonstrate that the Fe-N-C catalyst can hold the promise of being an excellent alternative to the costly Pt catalyst for practical MFC applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.