Tuning metal atom doped interface of electrospinning nanowires to toward fast bioelectrocatalysis

Abstract

Metal doping plays a key role in overcoming inefficient extracellular electron transfer between electrode interface and electricity-producing microorganisms. However, it is unknown whether different metals play distinctive roles in the doping process. Herein, three different metal ions (Fe, Ni and Cu) are added to the spinning precursor to obtain the corresponding electrospinning metal doped carbon nanofibers. It is found that the maximum output power of iron doped carbon nanofiber anode is 641.96 mW m−2, which is better than that of nickel doped carbon nanofiber (411.26 mW m−2) and copper doped carbon nanofiber (336.01 mW m−2), as well as 7.62 times higher than that of CNF. The results proved that due to the various number and types of active sites formed, as well as the distinction in surface morphology and structure, the electronegativity of each material is different. The different bio-abiotic interface could affect the direct contact between the anode interface and the extracellular protein of electricity producing microorganisms, which leading to a significant gap in the improvement of bioelectrocatalytic performance of different metal anode materials. This work provides a synthetic idea for designing highly efficient anode materials with directional metal modification and interface regulation.