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Boosting power output in microbial fuel cell with sulfur-doped MXene/polypyrrole hydrogel anode for enhanced extracellular electron transfer process

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Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) has been regarded as a promising green and clean electricity generation device. The anode plays a crucial role in the electricity generation process within the MFC. This study employed a hydrothermal method for the doping of sulfur onto MXene nanosheets to alleviate the stacking, followed by an in situ polymerization process to fabricate sufur-doped MXene/polypyrrole (S–MXene/PPy) composite hydrogel on carbon felt (CF). The MFC constructed with this anode exhibited the highest power density of 8.05 W m−3 and a maximum output voltage of 646 mV, higher than that of MXene/PPy (623 mV, 6.03 W m−3), PPy (594 mV, 4.91 W m−3), and unmodified CF (574 mV, 4.05 W m−3). This improved performance can be attributed to the reduction of charge transfer resistance in the material while improving the bacteria affinity, leading to enhanced extracellular electron transfer (EET) efficiency. High-throughput sequencing indicates that the excellent biocompatibility significantly promotes the attachment and growth of electroactive microorganisms (Geobacter, 45.34%) on the S–MXene/PPy anode. This study demonstrates that S–MXene/PPy hydrogel has good potential as an anode from the perspective of MFC electricity generation and microbial analysis.

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Acknowledgements

The project greatly thanks the support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22278095).

Funding

This study was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China, 22278095, 22278095, 22278095, 22278095.

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  1. College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang, People’s Republic of China

    Cen Bi, Qing Wen, Ye Chen & Haitao Xu

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Contributions

Cen Bi: investigation, methodology, formal analysis, data curation, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing; Ye Chen: supervision, conceptualization, funding acquisition, resources; Qing Wen: supervision, conceptualization, funding acquisition; Haitao Xu: writing—review and editing.

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Bi, C., Wen, Q., Chen, Y. et al. Boosting power output in microbial fuel cell with sulfur-doped MXene/polypyrrole hydrogel anode for enhanced extracellular electron transfer process. J Appl Electrochem (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-024-02137-5

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