Nickel based catalysts for highly efficient H₂ evolution from wastewater in microbial electrolysis cells

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Lu Lu^a ; ^{lu.lu@colorado.edu" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Dianxun Hou^a ; ^{dianxun.hou@colorado.edu" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Yanfen Fang^b ; ^{fangyf@ctgu.edu.cn" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Yingping Huang^b ; ^{huangyp@ctgu.edu.cn" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Zhiyong Jason Ren^a ; ^{zhiyong.ren@colorado.edu" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author}
• 关键词：NiFe layered double hydroxide (NiFe LDH) ; nickel foam ; microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) ; hydrogen production ; wastewater treatment ; fermentation
• 刊名：Electrochimica Acta
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：10 July 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：206
• 期：Complete
• 页码：381-387
• 全文大小：1819 K

文摘

The high cost and over-potential loss of the cathode are primary bottlenecks of the microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) technology for efficient H₂ production from renewable biomass. In this study, novel NiFe layered double hydroxide (NiFe LDH) electrocatalyst was directly grown on nickel foam for H₂ evolution from actual brewery wastewater and its fermentation effluent. The new cathode demonstrated comparable high H₂ rate (2.01–2.12 m³-H₂/m³/d) with benchmark Pt catalyst but showed higher H₂ recovery (76–80% vs. 55–66%), which is twice as much as the rate obtained from popular stainless steel mesh and bare nickel foam cathodes. More interestingly, different from the Pt-coated cathode, the NiFe LDH/Ni foam cathode demonstrated very stable and even increased performance overtime when operated in real wastewater. The one-step in situ growth of catalyst on nickel substrate eliminates polymer binders and current collector, which greatly simplifies the manufacture process and reduces costs in large scale systems.