Carbonaceous Anodes and Compatible Exoelectrogens in High-Performance Microbial Fuel Cells: A Review

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are next-generation electrical devices that harness biochemical resources to simultaneously generate renewable energy and remediate environmental wastewater. To engineer high-performance MFCs, much attention has been paid to anode materials since anodes are pivotal platforms for electroactive microbial (exoelectrogens) adhesion and electron transfer, thereby dominating the overall power output and substrate degradation efficiency. Driven by emerging low-cost and high-performance MFC anodes fabricated from conventional carbon materials and biomass sources, this Review summarizes recent advances in carbonaceous anodes and their compatible exoelectrogens. The fundamental properties of high-performance anodes, including porosity, biocompatibility, and electric conductivity, are compared in detail to associate the exoelectrogen metabolism with device power output and substrate degradation efficiency. This Review may build up a new interface between abio- and biocomponents to accelerate the journey toward cost-effective, high-efficiency, and large-scale MFCs based on carbonaceous materials.