Application of pyrolysed iron(II) phthalocyanine and CoTMPP based oxygen reduction catalysts as cathode materials in microbial fuel cells

• DOI: 10.1016/j.elecom.2005.09.032
• Publication Date: 2005-11-04T07:09:57Z
• Authors: Feng Zhao; Falk Harnisch; Uwe Schröder; Fritz Scholz; Peter Bogdanoff; Iris Herrmann
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; 0104 chemical sciences

The performance of iron(II) phthalocyanine (FePc) and cobalt tetramethoxyphenylporphyrin (CoTMPP) based oxygen reduction catalysts was studied in view of the application as cathode materials in microbial fuel cells. Galvanostatic and potentiostatic experiments were performed in order to compare the proposed materials to platinum and hexacyanoferrate(III) based systems. Additionally, two-chamber microbial fuel cell experiments were carried out to demonstrate that the transition metal based materials are well suitable to fully substitute the traditional cathode materials in microbial fuel cells.