Recent advances and challenges in the anode architecture and their modifications for the applications of microbial fuel cells

Electrode materials for microbial fuel cells: nanomaterial approach

“…There is a need to modify such materials to obtain enhanced catalytic properties. Various treatments can be employed to improve the performance of carbon materials [52].…”

Recent progress and perspectives in microbial fuel cells for bioenergy generation and wastewater treatment

“…Also, there have been promising results concerning the use of nanosilver/iron oxide composites based on graphite carbon (AgNPs/Fe 3 O 4 /GC), a low cost source, offering higher power density and durability than platinum/carbon [89]. Much effort has also been directed at designing new configurations in order to make the scaling-up of MFCs viable [26,27,39,[65][66][67]71,80,102,103,147,152,153,172].…”

Effect of Multiwall Carbon Nanotube contained in the Exfoliated Graphite anode on the power production and internal resistance of microbial fuel cells

“…The anode reaction of MFCs is affected by the biocompatability, porosity and surface area, and electronic conductivity of the anode materials (Song et al, 2009;Wei et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2011;Kumar et al, 2013). Therefore, several surface modifications of anode such as ammonia treatment, acid or heat treatment, and electrochemical oxidation have been tried to improve the anode performance (Wei et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2012;Kumar et al, 2013), and the power production of MFCs was substantially increased to several watts per square meters of anode surface area. These surface modification methods, however, are difficult to apply to fabrication of a large size anode for the field application of MFCs because they are quite complex and high energy consuming processes.…”

“…The anode has been regarded as an important factor that influences power output of MFCs by governing attachment of microorganisms to its surface, electron transfer efficiency and substrate oxidation although the performance of MFCs depends on the complex parameters of MFCs governing the overpotentials and ohmic losses (Zhang et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2012). The anode reaction of MFCs is affected by the biocompatability, porosity and surface area, and electronic conductivity of the anode materials (Song et al, 2009;Wei et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2011;Kumar et al, 2013). Therefore, several surface modifications of anode such as ammonia treatment, acid or heat treatment, and electrochemical oxidation have been tried to improve the anode performance (Wei et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2012;Kumar et al, 2013), and the power production of MFCs was substantially increased to several watts per square meters of anode surface area.…”