Development of high performance of Co/Fe/N/CNT nanocatalyst for oxygen reduction in microbial fuel cells

In this paper, we synthesized a unique cathode catalyst Co/Fe/N/CNTs with high performance oxygen reduction. Through the pi-stacking force, the cobalt porphyrins (CoTMPP) and iron phthanlocyanine (FePc) were deposited to the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) sidewall. The CoTMPP/FePc functionalized CNTs were used as the precursor to prepare the Co/Fe/N/CNTs based oxygen reduction nanocatalyst through high-temperature pyrolysis. The as-prepared catalyst exhibited higher electrocatalytic activity for the reduction of dioxygen than that of the Co/Fe/N/graphite and commercial Pt/C. The high electrocatalytic activity and good stability for dioxygen reduction made the Co/Fe/N/CNT as a potential candidate for the efficient cathode material in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). The maximum power of the MFC using the Co/Fe/N/CNT as cathode catalyst is 751 mW m(-2), which was 1.5 times larger than the MFC with the commercial Pt/C catalyst under the same condition. Such an approach is useful for the improvement of the cathode performance and to provide the basis for the development of the efficient MFC cathodes. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.