Nanostructured Macroporous Bioanode Based on Polyaniline-Modified Natural Loofah Sponge for High-Performance Microbial Fuel Cells

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a promising technology to recover electrical energy from different types of waste. However, the power density of MFCs for practical applications is limited by the anode performance, mainly resulting from low bacterial loading capacity and low extracellular electron transfer (EET) efficiency. In this study, an open three-dimensional (3D) structured electrode was fabricated using a natural loofah sponge as the precursor material. The loofah sponge was directly converted into a continuous 3D macroporous carbon material via a simple carbonization procedure. The loofah sponge carbon (LSC) was decorated with nitrogen-enriched carbon nanoparticles by cocarbonizing polyaniline-hybridized loofah sponges to improve their microscopic structures. The macroscale porous structure of the LSCs greatly increased the bacterial loading capacity. The microscale coating of carbon nanoparticles favored EET due to the enhanced interaction between the bacteria and the anode. By using a single-chamber MFC equipped with the fabricated anode, a power density of 1090 ± 72 mW m(-2) was achieved, which is much greater than that obtained by similarly sized traditional 3D anodes. This study introduces a promising method for the fabrication of high-performance anodes from low-cost, sustainable natural materials.