New Progress in Microbial Fuel Cells and Its Outlook

Electrodes, catalysts, membranes, if present, are three main components in constructing a MFC for harvesting desired maximum power density and achieving higher coulombic efficiency (CE). Great improvements have been made, based on previous researches, in developing and diversifying materials, aside from architectures. Electrodes are widely used carbon materials. For anodes, carbon matrix composites, a combination of polyaniline (PANI) with TiO2 using carbon as substrate, have gained special attention, though carbon material itself can exhibit excellent performance by diversifying molecular structures such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs). In the meanwhile, the evolution of MFC architectures, heading to the direction of improving power generation, contributes to the combination of membranes and cathodes from separate modes to diverse assemblies, on which all sorts of catalysts, such as from commonly used Pt to iron phthalocyanine (Pc), metal tetramethoxyphenylporphyrin (TMPP), MnOx, or pyrolyzed iron(ll) phthalocyanine (pyr-FePc), can immobilize through synthesis of these catalysts with polymer such as Nafion 117 or tetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) containing functional groups or Polypyrrole (PPy). This paper is mainly aimed at reviewing the development of materials in recent years and making several proposals.