Journal
ELECTROCHIMICA ACTA
Volume 315, Issue -, Pages 41-47Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2019.05.098
Keywords
Microbial fuel cells; Activated carbon; Air cathode; Power decay; Artemia cyst shells
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [21876090, 51778408]
- Tianjin Research Program of Application Foundation and Advanced Technology [18JCZDJC39400]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [C029188008]
- 111 Program of the Ministry of Education of China [T2017002]
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Activated carbon (AC) air-cathode is demonstrated to be promising for the energy recovery from wastewaters. However, it suffers from the performance decay after long-term operation in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Here we add a natural hierarchical porous nitrogen-rich carbon material, carbonized Artemia cyst shells (LC), to alleviate the power decay. When the air-cathode is made of a mixture of AC and LC with a mass ratio of 1:2 (named 1AC2LC), the current densities are 28% (the beginning) and 65% (after 1 year's operation) higher than AC cathodes, and the long-term power densities increase from 0.871 +/- 0.002 (AC) to 1.296 +/- 0.005 Wm(-2) (1AC2LC) after one year's operation. The Coulombic efficiency increases by 20% than the control. This can be primarily attributed to these inerratic hierarchical pores enhancing oxygen transfer in the catalyst layer since the oxygen mass transfer coefficient is increased by 3.4 times, where the meso-and macro-pores are enlarged, showing the importance of oxygen transfer on the longevity and energy production. Our results show a novel way, addition of inexpensive carbonized Artemia cyst shells, to optimize cathodic porous structure and enhance the longevity of MFCs. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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