Easily-prepared macroporous-mesoporous carbon from palm fiber as a sustainable anode for high-performance microbial fuel cells

Abstract

Anode material plays a pivotal role in increasing the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). In this study, macroporous-mesoporous carbon derived from palm fiber (PF) as sustainable anode material was easily prepared via H3PO4 activation followed by carbonization. The MFC with palm fiber derived anode achieved a maximum power density of 718.15 mW m-2, which was 3.89 times higher than that of carbon cloth anode (146.78 mW m-2). P element was doped on PF anode by H3PO4 activation, which significantly improved the anodic hydrophilicity. The specific surface area (SSA), microporous structure, and P content of PF anode were significantly increased while O content was decreased when carbonization temperature increased from 500 °C to 900 °C. Collectively, PF anode was characteristic with high electrochemical performance and facile fabrication, which exhibiting great application potentials as an ideal MFC anode material in future.