A dual-chambered microbial fuel cell with manganese dioxide nano-structured cathode for wastewater treatment

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can generate electricity by breaking down organic molecules through sustainable bio-electrochemical processes and wastewater as an energy source. A novel approach to remediate wastewater containing selenite was studied utilizing a selenite-reducing mixed bacterial culture with a nano manganese oxide modified cathode in the MFCs. The modification enhanced electrochemical catalytic activity, extracellular electron transfer rate, chemical oxygen demand (COD) elimination efficiency, and coulombic efficiency. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-rays analysis were used to examine a manganese dioxide-coated graphite cathode's surface morphology and chemical composition. The manganese dioxide-coated electrode generated up to 69% higher voltage with 150 ppm selenite concentration than the uncoated graphite electrode. The MFC removed up to 80% of the initial COD of 120 mg l-1and achieved a maximum power density of 1.51 W m-2. The study demonstrates that MFCs can effectively treat selenite-containing wastewater, and modifying the cathode can enhance energy production.

Recent progress in 1D MOFs and their applications in energy and environmental fields

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous coordination polymers with adjustable nanostructure, high porosity and large surface areas. These features make MOFs, their derivates and composites all delivered remarkable potential in energy and environmental fields, such as rechargeable batteries, supercapacitors, catalysts, water purification and desalination, gas treatment, toxic matter degradation, etc. In particular, one-dimensional (1D) MOFs have generated extensive attention due to their unique 1D nanostructures. To prepare 1D MOF nanostructures, it is necessary to explore and enhance synthesis routes. In this review, the preparation of 1D MOF materials and their recent process applied in energy and environmental fields will be discussed. The relationship between MOFs' 1D morphologies and the properties in their applications will also be analyzed. Finally, we will also summary and make perspectives about the future development of 1D MOFs in fabrication and applications in energy and environmental fields.

Principles of Design and Synthesis of Metal Derivatives from MOFs

Materials derived from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have demonstrated exceptional structural variety and complexity and can be synthesized using low-cost scalable methods. Although the inherent instability and low electrical conductivity of MOFs are largely responsible for their low uptake for catalysis and energy storage, a superior alternative is MOF-derived metal-based derivatives (MDs) as these can retain the complex nanostructures of MOFs while exhibiting stability and electrical conductivities of several orders of magnitude higher. The present work comprehensively reviews MDs in terms of synthesis and their nanostructural design, including oxides, sulfides, phosphides, nitrides, carbides, transition metals, and other minor species. The focal point of the approach is the identification and rationalization of the design parameters that lead to the generation of optimal compositions, structures, nanostructures, and resultant performance parameters. The aim of this approach is to provide an inclusive platform for the strategies to design and process these materials for specific applications. This work is complemented by detailed figures that both summarize the design and processing approaches that have been reported and indicate potential trajectories for development. The work is also supported by comprehensive and up-to-date tabular coverage of the reported studies.

Zn-Doped CoS2 Nanoarrays for an Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction: Understanding the Doping Effect for a Precatalyst

Development of low-cost, efficient, and durable electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial for multiple energy conversions and storage devices. Herein, Zn-doped CoS₂ nanoarrays supported on carbon cloth, Co(Zn)S₂/CC, are fabricated through a facile sulfidization of CoZn metal-organic frameworks. This precatalyst, Co(Zn)S₂/CC, with a well-defined nanoarray structure affords excellent OER catalytic activity (η = 248 mV at 10 mA/cm²) and long-term durability in 1 M KOH. X-ray photoelectron and in situ Raman spectroscopic studies indicate that Co(Zn)S₂ undergoes surface reconstruction with the generation of Co(Zn)OOH adsorbed with SO₄^2- at the surface during the OER process. The Zn dopant is calculated to impact on the electronic structure of Co species and further the adsorption of intermediates. This work not only provides a novel method for the synthesis of bimetallic sulfides but also gives insights into the doping effect on the OER performance of transition metal sulfides.

Porous Cobalt Sulfide Selenium Nanorods for Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution

A key process in electrochemical energy technology is hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, its electrochemical properties mainly depend on the catalytic activity of the material itself. Therefore, it is important to find efficient electrocatalysts to realize clean hydrogen production. As a typical kind of catalytic materials, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMCs) play important roles in the field of energy catalysis. As a representative of TMCs, cobalt disulfide (CoS₂), recently has raised much research interest owing to its abundant reserves, environmental friendliness, and excellent electrochemical stability. Meanwhile, given the fact that doping is one of the effective methods to improve the electrochemical catalytic property, various means of doping have been researched. Here, we report for the first time that porous-like Se-CoS_2-x (or Se:CoS_2-x ) nanorod can be facilely synthesized via a controllable two-step strategy. It is demonstrated that doping Se can greatly improve the catalytic performance of CoS₂ electrode. The electrode can obtain a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 at overpotential of only ∼260 mV. And the current changes with the applied bias voltage in an obvious stepped pattern, in the chronopotential (CP) curve of Se-CoS_2-x , indicating its outstanding mass transfer property and mechanical stability.

In Situ Decorated Ni Metallic Layer with CoS2-Layered Thin Films via a Layer-by-Layer Strategy Using Pulsed Laser Deposition for Enhanced Electrocatalytic OER

The catalytic activity of 3d-transition-metal-based electrocatalysts has exhibited considerable enhancements in electrocatalytic water splitting via pioneering modulations in the active sites. To overcome the energy loss because of the mechanic steps involved in a complex oxygen evolution reaction (OER), the electrode surface with only a few layers would be an advantage over multilayers for the ease of the electrolyte interaction and gas evolution. Here, for the first time, thin films of CoS₂ are prepared on a carbon cloth via a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique via layer-by-layer deposition of Ni that tend to give Ni-CoS₂ thin films. Based on varying the ablation of metallic Ni followed by CoS₂ as a layer-by-layer assembly using PLD, three catalysts, namely, Ni5-CoS₂, Ni10-CoS₂, and Ni15-CoS₂, were prepared. In OER, to achieve a benchmarking current density of 10 mA cm^-2 in 1 M KOH, Ni10-CoS₂ required a lesser overpotential of 304 mV, whereas others, namely, Ni5-CoS₂, Ni15-CoS₂, and CoS₂, required overpotentials of 328, 336, and 373 mV, respectively, to attain the same current density. The charge transfer kinetics associated with all of the catalysts were analyzed, and the corresponding Tafel slope values for Ni5-CoS₂ and Ni10-CoS₂ were 75 and 98 mV/dec, respectively, ensuring the facile transfer of electrons at the interface. The assistance of metallic Ni sites also ensured stability for long-term applications. These findings will give a way for other earth-abundant catalysts for the increased electrocatalytic activity toward energy needs in future.

Constructing Ultrathin W-Doped NiFe Nanosheets via Facile Electrosynthesis as Bifunctional Electrocatalysts for Efficient Water Splitting

Exploring cost-effective and efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts via simple fabrication strategies is strongly desired for practical water splitting. Herein, an easy and fast one-step electrodeposition process is developed to fabricate W-doped NiFe (NiFeW)-layered double hydroxides with ultrathin nanosheet features at room temperature and ambient pressure as bifunctional catalysts for water splitting. Notably, the NiFeW nanosheets require overpotentials of only 239 and 115 mV for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), respectively, to reach a current density of 10 mA/cm² in alkaline media. Their exceptional performance is further demonstrated in a full electrolyzer configuration with the NiFeW as both anode and cathode catalysts, which achieves a low cell voltage of 1.59 V at 10 mA/cm², 110 mV lower than that of the commercial IrO₂ (anode) and Pt (cathode) catalysts. Moreover, the NiFeW nanosheets are superior to various recently reported bifunctional electrocatalysts. Such remarkable performances mainly ascribe to W doping, which not only effectively modulates the electrocatalyst morphology but also engineers the electronic structure of NiFe hydroxides to boost charge-transfer kinetics for both the OER and HER. Hence, the ultrathin NiFeW nanosheets with an efficient fabrication strategy are promising as bifunctional electrodes for alkaline water electrolyzers.

Fe-Doped Co-Mo-S microtube: a highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting in alkaline solution

Fe-Doped Co-Mo-S microtubes were successfully synthesized through a multistep synthetic route, employing MoO3 microrods as the sacrificial template, Co(NO3)2·6H2O and Fe(SO4)2·7H2O as the metal sources, 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) as the ligand and thioacetamide (TAA) as the S2- ion source. The as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), (high-resolution) transmission electron microscopy (TEM/HRTEM) and HAADF-STEM-EDS elemental mapping. Experiments showed that the as-obtained Fe-doped Co-Mo-S microtube catalyst demanded overpotentials of ∼105 and 268 mV to afford the current density of -10 mA cm-2 for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and 10 mA cm-2 for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with a durability of 60 h in 1.0 M KOH solution, respectively. In a two-electrode water-splitting device, the as-prepared Fe-doped Co-Mo-S microtubes acted as both anode and cathode simultaneously. To deliver a current density of 10 mA cm-2, a cell voltage of 1.605 V was required in 1.0 M KOH solution. After continuously catalyzing the overall water splitting for 60 h, the overpotential hardly changed, implying remarkable long-term stability. Obviously, the present Fe-doped Co-Mo-S microtubes have potential applications as bifunctional catalysts for electrochemical water splitting.

Spinel-type oxygen-incorporated Ni3+ self-doped Ni3S4 ultrathin nanosheets for highly efficient and stable oxygen evolution electrocatalysis

Spinel-type structured materials have attracted considerable attention and been regarded as promising alternative catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, the regulation of catalytically active octahedral sites in spinel structure to realize high activity and good stability for OER electrocatalysis is still a great challenge. Herein, we propose a self-doping strategy to boost OER performance of spinel-type Ni₃S₄ enriched high valence Ni³⁺ as active sites. By sacrificing Ni-based metal-organic framework, the ultrathin Ni₃S₄ manosheets are topologically grown on conductive Ni foam substrate and realize the simultaneous Ni³⁺ self-doping and surface oxygen incorporation during in situ sulfidation conversion process. These compositional and structural characteristics endow it with enhanced adsorption binding strength, enabling the highly efficient OER. As a result, the Ni₃S₄/NF exhibits excellent activity and outstanding stability toward OER electrocatalysis in alkaline medium, which only demands an ultralow overpotential of 266 mV to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 and manifests the stable OER process for at least 75 h. Moreover, when used as an effective overall water splitting electrolyzer, the Ni₃S₄/NF achieves a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 at only 1.638 V with good long-term stability.

Three-Dimensional N-Doped Carbon Nanotube Frameworks on Ni Foam Derived from a Metal-Organic Framework as a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Overall Water Splitting

Rational design of bifunctional, high-performance, and stable non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of great importance and challenging for the realization of overall water splitting. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been intensively studied as pyrolyzing precursors to prepare electrocatalysts. However, the aggregation of powder and the low conductivity of polymer binders have limited the applications of powder electrocatalysts. Therefore, the direct growth of MOFs on conductive and porous substrates will be a favorable way to prepare efficient electrocatalysts for electrocatalytic water splitting. Herein, we report a facile strategy for constructing three-dimensional N-doped carbon nanotube frameworks derived from metal-organic framework on Ni foam as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting. The resulting electrocatalyst exhibits excellent stability and high OER and HER activity with rather low overpotentials of 230 and 141 mV at 10 mA/cm² in 1.0 M KOH, respectively. Specifically, the as-synthesized electrodes were used as both the cathode and anode for overall water splitting with 10 mA/cm² at a cell voltage of only 1.62 V. The outstanding electrocatalytic performance is mainly attributed to a large number of accessible active sites of Co nanoparticles dispersed by the N-doped carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and the ultra-high surface area of CNT frameworks. The presented strategy offers a novel approach for developing MOF-derived nanocarbon materials on Ni foam for electrocatalysis and electrochemical energy devices.

Nickel Nitride Particles Supported on 2D Activated Graphene-Black Phosphorus Heterostructure: An Efficient Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Hydrogen is regarded as the most promising green clean energy in the 21st century. Developing the highly efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of great concern for the hydrogen industry. In the water electrolyzed reaction, the overpotential and the kinetics are the main hurdles for OER. Therefore, an efficient and durable oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalyst is required. In this study, an activated graphene (AG)-black phosphorus (BP) nanosheets hybrid is fabricated for supporting Ni₃ N particles (Ni₃ N/BP-AG) in the application of OER. The Ni₃ N particles are combined with the BP-AG heterostructure via facile mechanical ball milling under argon protection. The synthesized Ni₃ N/BP-AG shows excellent catalytic performance toward the OER, demanding the overpotential of 233 mV for a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 with a Tafel slope of 42 mV dec^-1 . The Ni₃ N/BP-AG catalysts also show remarkable stability with a retention rate of the current density of about 86.4% after measuring for 10 000 s in potentiostatic mode.