The construction of rod-like polypyrrole network on hard magnetic porous textile anodes for microbial fuel cells with ultra-high output power density

Abstract This study attempts to prompt the formation of microorganism films on flexible textile-based anodes and enhances the performance of living microorganisms by introducing magnetic properties to the anodes. A magnetic and electrically conductive anode for a microbial fuel cell is designed and fabricated by encapsulating uniformly dispersed SrFe 12 O 19 nanoparticles into the poly(vinyl alcohol- co -ethylene) (PVA- co -PE) nanofibers and forming a three-dimensional (3D) polypyrrole (PPy) network on the surface of flexible composite nanofiber based fabric. A dual-chamber MFC equipped with the magnetized anode shows a maximum power density of 3317 mW m −2 , which is significantly larger than that of the non-magnetized anode (2471 mW m −2 ). This study demonstrates that the hard-magnetic anode providing an inherent magnetic field can greatly promote bio-electrochemical reaction rates of E. coli , and decrease the anode charge transfer resistance in a MFC system.