Activated microporous-mesoporous carbon derived from chestnut shell as a sustainable anode material for high performance microbial fuel cells

作者：Chen, Qin; Pu, Wenhong; Hou, Huijie; Hu, Jingping; Liu, Bingchuan; Li, Jianfeng; Cheng, Kai; Huang, Long; Yuan, Xiqing; Yang, Changzhu; Yang, Jiakuan^*

来源：Bioresource Technology, 2018, 249: 567-573.

DOI：10.1016/j.biortech.2017.09.086

• Biomass
• Anode
• Microbial fuel cells
• Activation
• Power generation

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are promising biotechnologies tool to harvest electricity by decomposing organic matter in waste water, and the anode material is a critical factor in determining the performance of MFCs. In this study, chestnut shell is proposed as a novel anode material with mesoporous and microporous structure prepared via a simple carbonization procedure followed by an activation process. The chemical activation process successfully modified the macroporous structure, created more mesoporous and microporous structure and decreased the O-content and pyridinic/pyrrolic N groups on the biomass anode, which were beneficial for improving charge transfer efficiency between the anode surface and microbial biofilm. The MFC with activated biomass anode achieved a maximum power density (23.6 W m(-3)) 2.3 times higher than carbon cloth anode (10.4 W m(-3)). This study introduces a promising and feasible strategy for the fabrication of high performance anodes for MFCs derived from cost-effective, sustainable natural materials.

• 出版日期2018-2
• 单位华中科技大学