PTFE effect on the electrocatalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction in membraneless microbial fuel cells》.pdf

Bioelectrochemistry 106 (2015) 240–247 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Bioelectrochemistry journal home page: /locate/bioel eche m PTFE effect on the electrocatalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction in membraneless microbial fuel cells Edoardo Guerrini a, Matteo Grattieri b, Alessio Faggianelli a, Pierangela Cristiani c,⁎, Stefano Trasatti a a Università degli Studi di Milano, Department of Chemistry, Via Golgi 19, 20133 Milan, Italy b Politecnico di Milano, Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy c Ricerca Sul Sistema Energetico SpA, Department of Sustainable Development and Energy Sources, V. Rubattino, 54, 20134 Milan, Italy a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Influence of PTFE in the external Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) of open-air cathodes applied to membraneless micro- Received 29 October 2014 bial fuel cells (MFCs) is investigated in this work. Electrochemical measurements on cathodes with different PTFE Received in revised form 24 April 2015 contents (200%, 100%, 80% and 60%) were carried out to characterize cathodic oxygen reduction reaction, to study Accepted 4 May 2015 the reaction kinetics. It is demonstrated that ORR is not under diffusion-limiting conditions in the tested systems. Available online 16 May 2015 Based on cyclic voltammetry, an increase of the cathodic electrochemical active area took place with the decrease