Many reactions involve metals, especially noble metals or metal oxides as catalysts. Although metal-based catalysts have been playing a major role in various industrial processes, they still suffer from multiple competitive disadvantages, including their high cost, susceptibility to gas poisoning, and detrimental effects on the environment. Owing to their wide availability, environmental accept...

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells are considered one of the alternatives to fossil energy sources. The slow kinetics oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at cathode and high price Pt-based catalysts remain key challenges for commercial viability proton exchange cells. However, their cost susceptibility poisoning severely limit use large-scale applications in Heteroatom-doped porous carbon has ...

There is a need for alternative catalysts for oxygen reduction in the cathodic compartment of a microbial fuel cell (MFC). In this study, we show that a bipolar membrane combined with ferric iron reduction on a graphite electrode is an efficient cathode system in MFCs. A flat plate MFC with graphite felt electrodes, a volume of 1.2 L and a projected surface area of 290 cm2 was operated in conti...

A two-dimensional numerical model of a single-chamber solid oxide fuel cell SCFC operating on hydrocarbon fuels is developed. The SCFC concept is a simplification of a conventional solid oxide fuel cell in which the anode and cathode are both exposed to the same premixed fuel-air mixture, and selective catalysts promote electrochemical oxidation of the fuel at the anode and simultaneous electro...

Pt and non-precious metal catalysts were combined to build a hybrid cathode for fuel cell application, with the aim of dramatically reducing the amount of Pt and increasing the overall catalytic performance. An active nitrogen-doped magnetic onion-like graphitic carbon material (N-Me-C) was synthesized by pyrolyzing a hexamethylene diamine-Me (Me: Co and Fe) complex. The N-Me-C materials proved...

New sustainable methods are needed to produce renewable energy carriers that can be stored and used for transportation, heating, or chemical production. Here we demonstrate that methane can directly be produced using a biocathode containing methanogens in electrochemical systems (abiotic anode) or microbial electrolysis cells (MECs; biotic anode) by a process called electromethanogenesis. At a ...

Bimetallic catalysts containing platinum and transition metals (PtM, M = Mo, Ni, CoCr) were synthesized on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) functionalized in an alkaline medium. Their content is 10–15% by mass. PtM/CNTNaOH are active both the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) oxygen reduction (ORR) electrolytes. Although based a single metal inactive HOR, their activity cathode process of ORR increases ...