Enhanced power generation of microbial fuel cell using manganese dioxide-coated anode in flow-through mode

A novel anode is fabricated by electrodepositing manganese dioxide (MnO2) on carbon felt to promote MFC's power production. Compared to the bare carbon felt anode, when the electrodeposition time increases to 60 min, the anode capacitance improves 46 times. The maximum power density of the MFC with the MnO2-coated anode reaches 3580 +/- 130 mW m(-2), 24.7% higher than that with the bare carbon felt anode (2870 mW m(-2)). MnO2 is believed to facilitate extracellular electron transfer and accordingly improve the power output. Three anode substrate circulation modes, i.e., flow-through, side-flow, and no-flow, are applied. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests reveal that flow-through mode decreases the anode mass transfer resistance by 41.4% compared to the no-flow mode and contributes to the MFC's power production improvement. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.