Porous FeP Supported on 3D Nitrogen‑Doped Carbon Fibers as Efficient Electrocatalyst for Wide-pH Hydrogen Evolution

A novel porous iron phosphide (p-FeP) loading on nitrogen‑doped carbon fiber/carbon paper (p-FeP/NCF/CP) as a highly effective self-supporting electrode for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is synthesized by a three-step approach...

The Effect of Anode Material on the Performance of a Hydrogen Producing Microbial Electrolysis Cell, Operating with Synthetic and Real Wastewaters

The aim of the study was to assess the effect of anode materials, namely a carbon nanotube (CNT)-buckypaper and a commercial carbon paper (CP) on the performance of a two-chamber microbial electrolysis cell (MEC), in terms of hydrogen production and main electrochemical characteristics. The experiments were performed using both acetate-based synthetic wastewater and real wastewater, specifically the effluent of a dark fermentative hydrogenogenic reactor (fermentation effluent), using cheese whey (CW) as substrate. The results showed that CP led to higher hydrogen production efficiency and current density compared to the CNT-buckypaper anode, which was attributed to the better colonization of the CP electrode with electroactive microorganisms, due to the negative effects of CNT-based materials on the bacteria metabolism. By using the fermentation effluent as substrate, a two-stage process is developed, where dark fermentation (DF) of CW for hydrogen production occurs in the first step, while the DF effluent is used as substrate in the MEC, in the second step, to further increase hydrogen production. By coupling DF-MEC, a dual environmental benefit is provided, combining sustainable bioenergy generation together with wastewater treatment, a fact that is also reinforced by the toxicity data of the current study.

Ternary Composite of Molybdenum Disulfide-Graphene Oxide-Polyaniline for Supercapacitor

The ever-increasing need for small and lightweight power sources for use in portable or wearable electronic devices has spurred the development of supercapacitors as a promising energy storage and conversion system. In this work, a simple, facile and easy-to-practice method has been developed to employ carbon paper (CP) as the support to coat molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and graphene oxide (GO), followed by electrodeposition of polyaniline (PANI) to render CP/MoS2-GO-PANI. The preparation parameters, such as amounts of MoS2, GO and number of aniline electropolymerization cycles, have been optimized to render CP/MoS2-GO-PANI the best capacitive performance. The as-prepared optimal CP/MoS2-GO-PANI is characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The supercapacitive properties of CP/MoS2-GO-PANI as an electrode have been evaluated electrochemically via cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy testing. CP/MoS2-GO-PANI delivers a specific capacitance of 255.1 F/g at 1.0 A/g and exhibits excellent rate capability under larger current densities. Moreover, a symmetrical supercapacitor is assembled and three are connected in series to power a light-emitting diode for ~15 minutes, demonstrating the promising application potential of CP/MoS2-GO-PANI-based supercapacitor.

Supercapacitor with electrodes based on high-purity single-walled carbon nanotubes

We studied a supercapacitor with high purity carbon paper electrodes [1] with a specific gravity of 20 g/m2. The specific capacitance of the electrode during assembly in a coin cell housing with an aqueous 6M KOH electrolyte, at a scan rate of 1 mV/s, is 52 F/g. The specific power is 195.42 W/kg and the specific energy is 0.19 W⋅h/kg at a scan rate of 100 mV/s, which is included in the region of supercapacitors in the Ragone plot.