Potential of porous Co3O4 nanorods as cathode catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction in microbial fuel cells
By Ravinder Kumar and Lakhveer Singh and A.W. Zularisam and Faisal I. Hai
Published in Bioresource Technology
2016
Abstract
This study aims to investigate the potential of porous Co3O4 nanorods as the cathode catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in aqueous air cathode microbial fuel cells (MFCs). The porous Co3O4 nanorods were synthesized by a facile and cost-effective hydrothermal method. Three different concentrations (0.5 mg/cm2, 1 mg/cm2, and 2 mg/cm2) of Co3O4 nanorods coated on graphite electrodes were used to test its performance in MFCs. The results showed that the addition of porous Co3O4 nanorods enhanced the electrocatalytic activity and \ORR\ kinetics significantly and the overall resistance of the system was greatly reduced. Moreover, the \MFC\ with a higher concentration of the catalyst achieved a maximum power density of 503