Heteroatom-doped highly porous carbon derived from petroleum coke as efficient cathode catalyst for microbial fuel cells

Petrocoke carbon (PC) was prepared by pyrolysis of easily available byproduct of oil refining, petroleum coke. Thus-obtained PC not only possesses highly porous surface area, but also contains heteroatoms such as phosphate and sulfur in its framework. These properties make petrocoke carbon a good choice as a precursor for high performance aircathode catalyst. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) with PC as air-cathode catalyst produced a maximum power density of 1029.77 +/- 99.53 mW m(-2), which was higher than those with Pt/C cathodes or activated carbon cathodes. Furthermore, PC cathodes have comparable durability to activated carbon cathodes, demonstrating that the PC can be a low-cost and reliable alternative to precious-metal-based electrocatalysts for the air cathode in MFCs. Copyright (C) 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.