Highly dispersed polydopamine-modified Mo2C/MoO2 nanoparticles as anode electrocatalyst for microbial fuel cells

Abstract A novel composite, polydopamine-modified Mo 2 C/MoO 2 nanoparticles (HD-Mo 2 C/MoO 2 ), as anode electrocatalyst for microbial fuel cells (MFCs), is synthesized via carbon thermal reduction and following in situ polydopamine modification. The physical and electrochemical characterizations show that Mo 2 C/MoO 2 nanoparticles can be well dispersed through polydopamine modification and the resulting HD-Mo 2 C/MoO 2 exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity compared with unmodified Mo 2 C/MoO 2 . The MFC using HD-Mo 2 C/MoO 2 as anode electrocatalyst achieves a maximum output power density of 1.64 ± 0.09 W m −2 , which is 39% higher than that using Mo 2 C/MoO 2 (1.18 ± 0.08 W m −2 ) as anode electrocatalyst. This excellent performance is attributed to modification of PDA, HD-Mo 2 C/MoO 2 shows better hydrophilicity and electrocatalytic activity toward the direct oxidation of bacterial metabolites than unmodified Mo 2 C/MoO 2 .