Abstract
Six different electron mediators were immobilized on the activated carbon (AC) anode and their effects on performance of a direct glucose alkaline fuel cell were explored. 2-hydroxy-1, 4-naphthoquinone (NQ), methyl viologen (MV), neutral red (NR), methylene blue (MB), 1, 5-dichloroanthraquinone (DA) and anthraquinone (AQ) were doped in activated carbon (AC), respectively, and pressed on nickel foam to fabricate the anodes. NQ shows comparable performance with MV, but with much lower cost and environmental impact. With NQ-AC anode, the fuel cell attained a peak power density of 16.10 Wm−2, peak current density of 48.09 Am−2, and open circuit voltage of 0.76 V under the condition of 1 M glucose, 3 M KOH, and ambient temperature. Polarization curve, EIS and Tafel measurements were also conducted to explore the mechanism of performance enhancement. The high performance is likely due to the enhanced charge transfer and more reactive sites provided on the anode.
Highlights
In recent years, with the rapid development of global industrialization, environmental problems caused by fossil fuel combustion are becoming more and more serious [1,2,3,4,5]
The effect of doping with different electron mediators on the fuel cell performance is presented in doped activated carbon (AC) (MV-AC) anode exhibits the best performance, with open cell voltage of 0.78 V, peak power density of 10.05 Wm2, and peak current density of 25.61 Am2 .The cell equipped with NQ doped AC
(NQ-AC) anode has comparable performance with the cell equipped with methyl viologen (MV)-AC anode, with open cell voltage of 0.79 V, peak power density of 9.95 Wm2, and peak current density of 34.23 Am2
Summary
With the rapid development of global industrialization, environmental problems caused by fossil fuel combustion are becoming more and more serious [1,2,3,4,5]. DGAFCs can tackle these problems by direct conversion of chemical energy into electrical power without enzymes and microorganisms Precious metals, such as platinum and gold, and nanomaterials are normally employed to catalyze the oxidation of substrate [18,19,20,21]. With a 0.9 μm mean plated fiber diameter membrane, the cell achieved an open circuit voltage of 0.385 V and a peak power density of 196 μWcm2 [11] Their experimental results indicate that the electrical performance of the fuel cell is proportional to the surface area of the fibrous anodes. In order to find low-cost and environmentally-friendly MV alternatives, activated carbon (AC) anode modified by six different electron mediators was prepared and examined To our knowledge, this is the first report of the direct combination of electron mediators and AC composite as anode catalysts for glucose oxidation in DGAFC. Comprehensive characterizations including linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and Tafel measurements were conducted to explore the mechanism
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